


You Met In The Lobby

by metall



Series: 6 Degrees Of Separation [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Dirk | Roxy, Harley-English, Jake | Jade, M/M, Strilondes, a fic that contains hot as hell Jake English, character death mention, davesprite's stupid name is davis because im uncreative, everyone is hot take me to church, excessive tagging, past Dirk/Caliborn - Freeform, past Dirk/Rufioh, past Jade/Rose, siblings Dirk&Roxy, siblings Jake&Jade
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-21
Updated: 2015-05-30
Packaged: 2018-03-31 13:33:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 33,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3979855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/metall/pseuds/metall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Upon returning to your apartment, there was a man, no, a young adult, who looked about your age, sleeping in the lobby among a small pile of luggage. There was this glaring silence in the empty lobby for a long moment, meanwhile you stared at the sleeping boy who was nearly in a coma. A very uncomfortable looking coma.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So at the moment I'm sort of working on multiple little fics, and I'm rather proud of this so far & couldn't wait to post it, so enjoy!

Your name is Dirk Strider, you are nineteen years old, living alone in an apartment in Washington, and it is two in the morning.

It was raining out, but you had gone for a run anyway, fucking up your routine over some water wasn't worth it. Your nights typically were a back and forth pattern of work, get distracted, work, run, shower, work- and if you could manage before sunrise- sleep.

You'd gotten to that point where you're bored and restless earlier than usual, so you went out the back stairwell and into the rain, which was just a drizzle when you started, and went for said run.

That was what you did in summary, except upon returning to your apartment, there was a man, no, a young adult, who looked about your age, sleeping in the lobby among a small pile of luggage. There was this glaring silence in the empty lobby for a long moment, meanwhile you stared at the sleeping boy who was nearly in a coma. A very uncomfortable looking coma.

Dirk spent that extended moment debating whether to be THAT guy or not, but elected to bother the sleeping boy anyway, nudging his knee with a wet sneaker.

"Yo." No response. "Guy." Still nothing. You continue to nudge him.

Nothing. "Wake up."

"Hey."

...

He twitches. But no response otherwise.

"There's a fire." His eyes snap open in an alarming fashion, it's almost funny, but you can't manage to let yourself show your own amusement, so you stand there in your damp sweats and tank top like the soggy bother you are.

The guy sits up slowly, painfully almost, and blinks up at you with clear confusion. Oh, right.

"Don't mean to bother you, but you can't really sleep in the lobby. Security comes at like six in the morning." You stuff your hands in your pockets uncomfortably, although it gives off a different impression.

He looks lost, disoriented maybe, and adjusts his glasses before finally saying something, "Oh... Right. Of course." Accent, you note.

...Was that all?

"Do you need help getting in..?"

He nods, in that same painfully slow motion. Alright then.

You turn to the door to unlock it and hold it open for him, meanwhile he drowsily gets off the floor and begins picking up his luggage.

"Are you visiting someone?" You inquire.

"Yes, I am. Do you happen to know where apartment 704 is?" You do.

"I do. Harley, right?" He looks shocked, as if you have ESP and there's no way in hell you could possibly be neighbors with tenant 704.

You are definitely neighbors with number 704. You don't say that though.

He pushes the many bags through the lobby door, grunting to hoist a seemingly especially heavy bag over his shoulder, "Uh, yes. That's her. By any chance, could you direct me over there? She is asleep and regretfully not answering my calls." You wordlessly oblige, offering to take a couple of his bags into the elevator.

The two of you awkwardly stand there on your way up to the seventh floor, staring at the foggy reflective walls instead of each other. You elect to be the one to speak up, "So were you drunk or.." You trail off, figuring he'd piece together your pointed question.

The other wasn't stumbling or slurring, but he was looking pretty out of it in the lobby, not to mention asleep among all his bags. Wasn't likely, but you felt the need to ask.

"What- why? Are you a cop?" He answers. You instinctually snort, half-grinning.

"So you were?"

He looked embarrassed, but vigorously shakes his head, "No! I told you, my sister isn't awake!" The elevator doors open.

"Well, chill out, I'm not a cop." You've never heard of a nineteen year old cop before, anyway.

The both of you step out and he hangs his head as if in defeat, deflated and slightly embarrassed. He reminds you of some cartoon with how expressive he is.

You walk him to apartment 704 and set down the bags around the door, he thanks you and says goodbye before knocking on the door. You go into your own apartment, across the hall.

Ten minutes later you get a knock on your door. You're about to get in the shower, unfortunately, but assume it's the neighbor or her brother so you grab your shades and a towel and answer the door, feeling slightly disheveled. Lucky you, it's both of them, and the neighbor girl has a fat cactus in a pot in her hands.

"Thanks for going through all that trouble to bring my brother up here!" She says.

You're not entirely sure why she's so grateful, or what to say, so you simply respond, "Yeah."

She nearly shoves the pot into your abdomen and tells you she will see you around, the brother (did you get his name? No, you think) smiles at you before following back to her apartment and shutting the door behind himself.

You stand in the doorway with a cactus threatening to poke your bare skin and stare at the closed door across the hall. You decide, yes, you will see them around.

Two days later, about half an hour past noon, you head out to grab some food and run into neighbor girl and co., looking as peppy and ready for the day as ever. Just looking at her exhausts you.

They both ask, in different ways, what you're doing and upon your answer, you are cheerily invited to have breakfast with Jade and her brother. You oblige, figuring you're still going to have time to work. Too much time, even. You're ahead in your work, is what you mean.

When the three of you get into the elevator, the boy reaches across to you to shake your hand, telling you, "I don't believe we have had formal introductions. My name is Jake English."

"English?" You question.

Jade intervenes, "Yeah, our mom never took our dad's name and when we went to live with our grandparents, each from one side of the family, he was English and I was Harley." Weird and slightly confusing, but you nod.

You remember to meet Jake halfway and you're about to give him a fake name but he catches onto what you wanted to say and interrupts, "Right, I know, Jade told me. Dirk, correct?"

The three of you walk out of the elevator and outside, you nod again, "Are you Russian?" He asks. You shrug.

"What, you don't know?!" You flinch slightly, alarmed by his sudden...alarm.

Again, you shrug, "Just didn't matter."

"Doesn't matter? Hmph, hundreds of years of cultural development and you just don't care for it."

"Guess not." You're almost amused by how offended he is at something so trivial.

Jade bumps into you to guide you to- a car? You look down at her and she's rolling her eyes (at Jake, you think). As you had guessed, you were being taken on a drive and piled in the car, Jake let you have the front seat.

They had turned on the radio to play some cover/remix of this old-timey song about a "Midnight Crew" while singing along loudly, and not too well, you note. You don't know the words so you watch them have fun with it.

Jake asks a lot of questions about food you like, mostly breakfast, and eventually it diverges into Jade fighting him on how disgusting peanut butter on a hot dog is. It makes you laugh a little, mostly because Jake is outrageous enough to defend something like that.

The three of you get to your breakfast destination and take a seat, Jade calmed down enough to not be staring down Jake anymore. Jade turns to you instead, asking if your brother will be coming by again. You ask which one and they both look slightly startled.

"How many do you have?" They ask in unison.

"I have two siblings, technically five if you take in circumstances."

"Circumstances?" Jake asks.

You hold in a sigh, "Half-siblings and shit."

"Wow, that's a lot." Jade adds.

"Yeah I guess." You agree, staring at the menu.

"Well, anyway, I meant the one I met! Remember, you two were on the roof?" She continues to ask.

"Yeah, I don't really know. He has to take care of the youngest and we don't really hang out much anyway." You look up, pushing your sunglasses up your nose.

"They live together but you don't live with them?" Jake this time asks the question.

You shrug, hoping they won't push on the subject much more. Your siblings are a bit of a strained topic right now.

They don't, "So where DO they live?" Maybe you should swat Jake with the menu.

"Texas."

"That's really far, I see why visiting would be difficult." Maybe that'll conclude sibling interrogation time.

You see it though, you see Jake open his mouth to ask more, but you're saved by a waiter. You curtly order coffee and the other two get different juices.

You decide what you want and look over the menu to see Jake staring at you, looking a mixture of confused and concerned. You must be reading him wrong though, like maybe he's in deep thought or is just really air headed and isn't aware of his facial expressions. You close the menu and set it down flat, folding your arms over it.

That seems to snap him out of his daze, but appears to embarrass him and he folds his nose into the plastic menu. Jade puts down her menu and rests her cheek on her hand before side glancing at Jake and his childish posture.

Conversation sparks up again and the two in front of you talk about their own ethnicity; a mixture of Pacific Islander, English, and American. Mostly Hawaiian, they confirm. They've both got perfect dark skin and a tooth gap, as well as glasses. They really look like siblings.

They've got thick blue-black hair that holds waves and gentle curls, bright green eyes, both taller than average, and the muscle definition of swimmers. Jade says she surfs, in fact, but Jake supposedly sucks at it, which makes him pout greatly.

Jake is quite happy to inform you that they lived in Hawaii for a year and a half, "Beautiful place," he tells you, "positively a dream! Have you ever been there?"

You shake your head, "No." You aren't much of a traveler, but you don't tell him that.

"Oh, you must, chap. I could stay on a beach in summer all my life, I swear." Jade smiles at you, apparently agreeing it was nice.

"There's some real killer wildlife, though!"

"Yes, watch out for those!" You sip your coffee, watching them.

Killer wildlife, huh. You wonder how literal that is.

That seems to spark some discussion on said wildlife, they go back and forth discussing "that one time" and "remember when". You learn from their conversation that they're both shooters, and claim to be... Well, in your words, if it were all true, fucking epic.

Your food comes and their conversation seems to lull to a near stop, and you're suddenly very aware of the silence around you when they aren't talking or asking questions.

While you're still finishing eating your last bits, they talk much more politely and quietly, and you notice something vaguely strange. Jake has an English accent and Jade doesn't. You know they said they were raised by separate grandparents but it seems so glaringly out of the ordinary. They're similar in so many other ways but this.

Jade almost sounds as if she came from a different decade, like your stereotypical beach-lurking surfer, while Jake had the typical English accent, only he used ridiculous and outdated words like "chum" and "gobblewonker" (whatever that means). That also seems weird to you. Their vocabulary is so... Antediluvian.

When you finish your plate, the check comes and you try to split the bill, insist even, but Jade seems ground on paying. "My treat", she says. Twice.

The three of you get back into Jade's car and it's a much more relaxed ride back, thankfully. They decide to drop you off, claiming they have plans for Jake to get settled into the city, but they both give you their numbers and Jake gets out to hug you goodbye and takes your seat in the passenger.

You get back to your apartment, toeing your shoes off and shrugging your hoodie off and putting it into a closet, all the while thinking about your breakfast with the Harley-English siblings. They're cool, you decide. Your conversations with Jade are usually much more short lived and she usually just teases you about little things but she turns out to be not-too-bad.

Her brother Jake is cool too. He's real cool. Fun, possibly. Easy to tease. Honestly, pretty fucking hot. Goddamnit, he is scorching. He's your neighbor's brother, so thinking about how good looking he is seems sort of scandalous, but damn he is on the next level. No other way to put it.

You sigh at yourself, going to your room to pick up last night's work and finding it the mess it was when you last saw it. Sharp unpolished metal, nuts and bolts, screwdrivers, and wrenches are strewn across your work table on top of sketches and a messy blueprint, completely unorganized.

==> Become Jake English.

You are Jake English! Just as you've always been. You are nineteen years old, and temporarily living with your sister in Washington. You have been in the state no more than two days and you are finding yourself quite content. You believe you have already made a new friend, as well.

The cities have never been much of an ideal location, they are much better suited as tourist attractions and nothing more for you, but you can hardly complain when everything you think you'll ever need is within a ten mile radius. Convenient, although you're afraid it'll make you lazy. Lazy is the last thing you want to be!

Regardless, you unpacked in the used-to-be-guest-room, lined with plants and painted a peaceful cream colour. You can't help but wonder why Jade insists on having so many plants, it's so much upkeep! There's ivy stapled to your wall, for christ's sake!

Whatever, it's not that bad, just a bit much. Your stuff lays haphazardly on the floor, bags opened but half-emptied, clothes already strewn on the furniture. Two days Jake, Jade had said. Two days! And your luggage was already all over the place. Sure, it was your room, but keeping it so messy hardly said "mature".

You'll take care of it, you tell yourself for the fifth time since you flung everything across your new room.

You think the apartment is quite nice, a decent size, just so that it's cozy, and Jade has her own bathroom. Which is especially convenient because her hair care products always get mixed in with your stuff and makes your hair look similar to that of a pomeranian's and then you get yelled at for "using up the expensive crap like it's shampoo". Not like you wanted to smell so fragrant.

Who are you kidding, it makes you smell like tea tree and you'd take the pomeranian hairdo anyday if it meant smelling that good.

Anyway! Washington has proven to be quite the treat. The neighbor is quite the mysterious gentleman too, he even helped you get into Jade's apartment when she didn't wait for you to come.

Earlier that day, you had breakfast with your sister and the neighbor, Dirk, who is a rather odd fellow you think, but also a good egg! You consider going to him for city navigation or outings, rather than your sister because, in reality, going around establishments with your sibling everyday is just not preferred! Eventually she would become the unwanted position of wingman too and that is just not your cup of tea.

You sigh at the idea. She was always up to something...

Oh yeah, you had given that Dirk fellow your number too! You hope he shoots you a message, it'd be great if he wanted to pursue a friendship like you do.

In all honesty, most of your friendships in the past were short lived and commonly females, and it's not that that's a problem for you, but a guy appreciates having another guy in his circle too. Not every girl takes a strong liking to shooting and wrestling. You suppose neither does most anyone.

You turn to Jade for questions on the man, she's known him for a while. When you find her, she's sprawled awkwardly over the futon in the living room, looking sort of upside down but very engrossed in her business on her phone. You sit on the narrow empty space beside her feet, watching her.

You soon realize you're not going to be acknowledged so you grab her by the calf and fling a leg over, and she startles.

"Jake, geez!" She glares at you, gripping her phone in one hand and the furniture with the other. Jade resituates herself so she's sitting upright and pushes her bangs out of her face before looking at you again.

You are still staring, with a waiting look, you realize, "What!" She asks, in a not so inviting fashion.

"See, I was curious about what you know about the Dirk fellow." You lean your elbow on your knee and your chin in your palm, watching her with a small smile.

"What? What I know? That's kinda weird, Jake, if you want to ask him on a date, do it yourself."

You sputter, "Absurd! I just wanted to make a friend, curious on your judgment and all. That, plus he doesn't seem very open."

She rolls her eyes. Dagnabbit! "Wellll. His last name is Strider, there's that. He fights with swords sometimes, I saw him doing it on the roof. I think he also makes music or something? Maybe he's a producer. Either way, he has loud music on sometimes. Oh and lucky for you, he's gay. Well! I mean! He could be something else but I know he likes guys."

She seems very unsure of what she knows. Sigh- wait what, stop making those unsubtle accusations! "Jade, honestly, I just need a friend in the city. Someone who isn't my sister, you understand." You sort of trail off, "How do you know, though?"

That seems to make her cocky, she gives you a pointed look as if saying "I know your secret". Which you remind yourself, is absurd, because you have no secret regarding Mister Strider.

"There's these two boys I've seen show up at Dirk's door sometimes, one's got a mohawk and the other has these ridiculous snake tattoos and crud, and they would spend the night at his apartment! Don't get me wrong, Jake, I wasn't listening in, but someone is pretty loud, they were clearly getting it on..! One time I walked out of the apartment and Dirk was in his boxers with the mohawk boy and I think before I walked out, they were kissing. I said hi but they looked so awkward, heehee."

You roll your eyes at her for being so nosey, "Gosh Jade, you sound real intrusive."

She swats your arm. "I can't help what I hear and see!" 

"Well... Either way, what else do you know about him?"

She seems thoughtful, thankfully drifting away from accusing you of some childish crush, "Hmm. He stays up pretty late a lot, I think. I'm not awake often enough to know for sure, but he's always going in and out of his apartment late at night."

You nod, "Oh yeah, when I met him, he looked like he had just gone on a run."

"Yeah!" She agrees, "And I don't think he ever takes off those sunglasses. And his hair is always spiky!" You laugh a little at her information, thinking she's run out of things to say.

"Interesting. Alright, thanks Jade." You begin to get up, but you already see the smug look creeping onto her face.

"Good luck on your date." You could instigate a wrestle with the girl right darn now, you swear. But you don't say anything, just narrow your eyes at her as you return to your room.

You can hear her giggle even as you shut the door. You climb onto your bed, opening your laptop. Hmm..

Dirk doesn't seem gay... Wait, no, that's not right, you just mean you didn't expect something like that! Plus, Jade said he could be something else, like he could just take a partial interest in men. Ugh, this isn't your business!!

You run your hands through your hair, looking at your computer. You spaced out... You're still curious about him though, like is his mysterious air an act or is he just really private? What's his brother look like? What do all of his siblings look like? Do they all that light blonde hair colour?

You try to imagine shorter younger versions of the man you met, coming up with Christmas elves with spiky hair and glasses, and it sort of makes you laugh. You sincerely doubt his siblings are a bunch of elves.

Again, you end up spacing out, chin in hand, staring at the ivy on your wall. You think about the way he looks, like he could be albino, but he also has freckles, strangely enough.

He sort of looks like a model, with how tall and... Well, pretty he is. You noticed while he was eating breakfast he has long slender hands and wiry limbs, he seems athletic but he's also rather lanky, which you think suits him quite well. You also noticed a number of scars on some of the skin that was left uncovered.

Ugh! God, you almost forgot, he caught you staring at him! At least, you think he did, you can't really tell with him wearing sunglasses and all. But he certainly seemed to have noticed, with the way his head moved just slightly to face you and his eyebrows rose a fraction.

You remember you were trying to see the scars on his face and neck, how he had a peculiar white line going around his throat. You still wonder what that is. He has several small niches on his hands, and a few on his cheeks and jaw, too, which somehow suits him. Like it's part of his character.

Maybe one day you'll be able to ask him about them! You're suddenly grounded, finding yourself staring at the ivy again and avert your eyes to your laptop screen, which has now gone black on you. Oops.

The next day, you head out again with Jade to get food, and you see Dirk heading to his apartment, who looks very involved in some electronic in his hands. You both wave to him and he nods to you two, and then later on you see him with a big hunk of sheet metal under his arm. Weird!

You wonder why he hasn't messaged you, and try to consider he forgot, but you feel a bit left out in the rain (no pun intended) with how completely disregarded you feel. Maybe he isn't interested in talking to you, which is a little disappointing, but you suppose you'd get it.

The next day, the door is knocked on and there's a man in khakis with a letter, one that has your name on it (that was fast). You thank him and turn to rip it open, skimming over its contents.

Blah blah blah... Thank you for your service and patience... Blah blah... Billing information... Gasp! You turn to find Jade, telling her you two should go to the animal hospital "A.S.A.P." She looks agitated, especially with how you don't outright tell her why, but takes you anyway.

There's a good half an hour of what you consider pointless waiting and form filling, but soon enough, you're allowed to retrieve him!

Your big white childhood dog comes out, looking especially happy to see you and runs to you and Jade (who you think is crying a little, she hasn't seen Becquerel in years) to cover you both in slobber and dog hair.

"Good boy! Come on, let's go, let's go." You urge, getting up, and Jade walks in front of you to the car, Bec trailing behind and practically hopping.

You two get him packed in the backseat of the car and decide to pick up some things for the dog, seeing as how you only brought a leash and bowls in preparation for when Bec is transported to the states. You and Jade spend a couple hours finding things for him and then take him to a park, sort of rewarding him for being such a good sport and enjoy your day with your dog. How you missed him!

Getting Bec up to the apartment is a bit of struggle, he's difficult with stairs and refuses to get in elevators, so getting him up the stairwell took several more minutes than it should have. You guess he will just have to get used to it!

When you, Jade, and Bec get up to the seventh floor, Dirk is sitting against his door, arms crossed. He doesn't appear to see you, even when you approach, so you deduct he must be asleep. You and Jade look at each other questioningly before she waves her hand in front of Dirk's face.

No response!

"Dirk?" He seems to wake up abruptly then, looking up at you two.

"Hey." He says, so nonchalant. He looks at the dog.

Jade sort of giggles and turns to her apartment, opening the door. You know exactly what she's doing.

"What're you doing out here, did you get locked out?"

He uncrosses his arms and begins to move, you offer a hand and pull him up, "No, I'd be able to get in if that was the case."

You raise an eyebrow, questioning what that means. "Oh." You say, unsure of what else to respond with. You hear Jade's apartment door close behind you, Dirk is unmoving.

"Would you like to come in," you offer, "I can put on the kettle." You swear he smirks when you say that. Is he making fun of you!

He shoves his hands in his pockets, "I dunno, Jade's plants give me wicked allergies. It's a fuckin' greenhouse, brewing up a storm of pollen."

You actually laugh a bit, thinking his analogy is peculiar but funny, "This time of year, the more flowery plants have to stay outside, I'm sure it'll be much better than whenever you last visited."

He seems satisfied with that and shrugs, "Sure then. Boil up that fuckin' kettle, English." You snort.

You lead Dirk into "your" apartment, seeing Jade on the floor and playing tug-o-war with Bec, she waves hello again to Dirk who nods at her. He follows you into the kitchen, taking a seat at one of the barstools. You prepare the kettle, like you said you would, before sitting across from him.

"New dog?" He asks, that same blank expression. With every minute he remains like that, you wonder how long he can keep it up.

"Oh, hardly, the boy is over a decade old. Jade and I grew up with him. Although he's healthy as he was when he was three!"

Dirk looks over his shoulder to glance into the living room where Jade and Bec are visible and playing, Jade is now getting the slobber treatment and you think you see the corner of Dirk's mouth turn up a bit.

You end up staring like a doofus, and when he turns and sees you watching him like an oblivious dork, he does that almost-grin again. Oh fuck, you snap out of it so fast you think you can momentarily see into another dimension. That was embarrassing!

You clear your throat, moving to the stove again and turning down the temperature to look busy.

"What kind of tea do you like? You ask, still looking at the stove top.

He scratches his chin, looking away, and then looks back at you, "Have instant coffee?"

You try to casually laugh, but probably sound a little nervous, which you are. Jade has gotten to you, for cripes sake. "Yes, we do."

A cup of tea and coffee is made and you sit with him again, trying to avoid anything resembling eye contact by watching Bec in the slightly uncomfortable silence. Maybe it isn't uncomfortable for Dirk though, after all, you're the one who's being actively teased about a nonexistent CRUSH on the man.

You work up the nerve to speak again, looking at him- or rather, the shape of his sunglasses. "So, are you able to get into your apartment?"

He puts down his mug, looking suddenly irritated, "Eventually, yeah."

"Erm.. What's the problem?"

"Somebody was being a little bitch and locked me out. Barricaded, I mean."

You're a little thrown off by that, unsure if you should ask.

Of course, you do. "Someone has barricaded your front door?"

He nods, sipping the dark drink, "I could get in the window or whatever but they'd probably just throw me out of it."

You aren't entirely sure if he's being serious or not! "Huh? Wait, we are on the seventh floor."

You see his eyelids fold above the sunglasses, looking back up at you, you hypothesize. You want to see his eyes now.

Dirk pushes his glasses up, "I know, but that's hardly different from climbing a two story house or whatever."

"I think it's plenty different!" You object.

He snickers, "Then you haven't tried to climb into enough windows."

That makes you a little uneasy, and you're not sure why.

"Can we go talk to whoever is in your apartment?"

He pulls a face as if disgruntled by that idea, and for some reason you find it charming, "Psh, yeah right."

Well that doesn't seem like the right attitude at all. You pick up your mug and go to the front door, and Dirk watches you before following a few seconds later, arms crossed again.

"Oh! Your door is wide open." He leans his head over from behind the door, looking into the hallway.

"So it is." He walks around you and to his own front door, suddenly becoming very slow and deliberate in his movements. You watch from your own door.

Dirk takes about three steps before there's a flash of movement, Dirk goes tumbling out of sight and there's a lot of audible banging around. "Holy crap!" You exclaim, running over.

You look in and there's a girl with platinum hair dressed in black and pink on top of Dirk, fighting (wrestling?) him. It seems playful enough..

Dirk appears to struggle grabbing her wrists together, and she is relentlessly attacking him with elbows and punches. You still aren't sure whether or not to intercept but this is starting to freak you out so you act quickly and wrap your arms under the girls', pulling her off of Dirk while she kicks and thrashes wildly.

You probably look some sort of horrified, "What do I do!" Dirk gets off the floor fluidly and rubs his cheek, waving you off.

"I'm going to let go now, okay? Please don't hurt me." You hope she isn't some assassin.. That's outrageous! Anyway, you let go of her and she looks back at you, rolling her shoulders.

Gosh, is she pretty. She's wearing dark makeup and black lipstick and has long-ish hair, kind of like Dirk's actually! She's about the same height as you, and fit, and you feel you may drool over her any minute.

"DiStri, who dis." DiStri? Oh, that is golden.

"The neighbor, go sit down you goddamn psycho." She makes a distasteful face at Dirk and leaves somewhere into the apartment after looking you up and down. You can't help but feel slightly violated.

You look over to see Jade shaking with silent laughter in the other door before closing it quickly.

"Wow.. Um, so." Dirk looks at you. "Crazy girlfriend?"

You swear he looks like he might burst into laughter from that question, "No way, she's my half sister. Visiting from a friend's. She's just... Eccentric."

"Oh. Sorry." You sheepishly look away before realizing you have no reason to still be there, "Oh, right, you're in your home! Fantastic, I'll leave you and your sister-"

"Half sister. " he clarifies. You guess that detail is important.

"-Half sister to it. I'll see you around!" You begin to walk out, feeling a bit invasive.

"Come by anytime English." He holds the door, watching you and you smile.

Feeling a little jittery, you force the door open and quickly slip inside, turning to smile again at him and finally close the door. Be still, my anxious heart, you tell yourself. That was quite the excitement!

Jade is practically breathing down your neck in that moment, smiling big and wide, oh so cocky.

"You liiike him." She tries again.

You yell, embarrassed, "No! That's preposterous! I don't even know the man!"

"He's hot though."

"Ugh, Jade please, don't say those things in front of me."

"Admit it!" She nearly screams.

"Jade!"

You fight in your childish ways for a while before you manage to retreat to your room, leaving your mug out in the kitchen. Whoops. Too late now.

You go to sleep that night after trying to thoroughly avoid Jade, and even though she isn't there to actively tease you about it, you can't stop thinking about her accusation. Do you have an interest in Dirk? He's certainly attractive but do you really have any true feeling behind that?

Hell, you're not even sure if he's available romantically, and you don't think you'd actually be able to be nonexclusive with anyone. You're getting ahead of yourself! This is nothing! You're just psyching yourself out because Jade always plays these little mindgames with you.

You sigh heavily and roll over in your bed, thinking too hard about it. These silly sort-of interests will eat you alive one day, you know it. A train of thought for another day, Jake!

Clearly it is not a train for another day because even when you distract yourself for five minutes, it leads back to Dirk, and when you think of Dirk, you are reduced to a grade school child and have to bury your face in your pillow like the embarrassed seven year old you probably are!

Oh damnit, you are really screwed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is shorter than the last I think and it's all exposition basically, but I was working on it too long & thought I'd stop this chapter here. Enjoy!

==> You are Dirk Strider, however, reminding yourself of that fact seems to prove no use. You've never been anyone else, and you would think that is a given.

But you digress, because you're currently trying not to fight with your half sister again. You two are usually pretty cool though, but today is just not cool.

She came over unexpectedly and when you told her you have work to do, she absolutely flipped out and started to fight with you. Whether it was "sibling roughhousing" or not is unclear but she ended up kicking you out of your own apartment for a good two hours.

When you finally got back inside, she pretended like none of it ever happened and started asking questions.

"What's your project?" "Are you friends with the neighbor? Can I hang out with him?" "Why's it smell like oil in here? Don't you ever clean up J-F-C."

You're tempted to kick yourself out.

You eventually get her to chill out and ask her how long she plans to stay, telling you two days until her friend finishes finals. "I'm too big of a distraction," she says. You reply with a smartass tone of "Damn right."

Roxy hits you with a couch pillow and your shades fall into your lap, meanwhile she laughs.

"Serves you right."

"Oh yeah, really being told off by the universe here." You put your shades back on, glancing at her.

She's petting your eyebrow and you try to pull away but she extends farther, "Stop shaving those stupid stripes, you've done it since high school and it's gotten old."

You grimace and put her hand down for her, "Stop plucking yours."

"You best keep an eye open tonight, you are being one hell of a smartass."

You roll your eyes and throw the television remote on her lap before getting off the couch and going to your room, sure to close the door behind you. Roxy can be a worse bother than she knows sometimes.

You spend a little over an hour in your room, browsing the internet and crap, and eventually decide to shoot Jake a message, considering you sort of forgot you even had his number. He doesn't respond.

You try Jade instead and she replies ten minutes later, "hi dirk!! i heard your sister is in town, you two should come over tomorrow night!" You're not sure whether you want to do that or not but Roxy's not staying around very long and it beats being alone with her for two days while she's On The Wagon.

You reply simply to Jade, "Sure, sounds good."

While it's hard to say you're excited for it, you're partially looking forward to see how that would go. Roxy's a social butterfly for sure, but she's unpredictable and determining Jade and Jake's actions to anything she says or does proves theoretically difficult. You leave your expectations at *interesting*.

Your hour is up when Roxy knocks on your door and sits on your bed, not even waiting for your response or reaction. You watch her while she looks at her phone.

A minute passes before she finally speaks, "So delivery?"

You hum a short affirmative.

Roxy looks up and looks around, "Wow, clean up for once."

You curl your lip at her. She mockingly does it back.

You look back at your computer, trying to pretend she doesn't exist for the time being, but she sees through you and starts talking about cakes and cupcakes and how you should totally try them, they are so good, omfg you dont even know.

When your replies don't change into words from "mhmm" and "uh huh", she digs a little deeper.

"Seen Ruf lately?" You nearly pull the mouse out of the computer.

"God, straightforward aren't you."

"Psh, that was vague as shit, you're just private as the little old lady in the shoe."

You grumble a, "I'm not even that much older than you." Of course, she picks up on it.

"That's not really the point but okaaay. So about Rufioh."

You turn your head toward her, and although she can't see it, you do not give her a happy look. You think she gets that too.

"Whaaat it's not like you're together, sheesh. Or ever even were for that matter, why are you being such a dick."

"It's none of your business, I am an old lady in a shoe and you are the toddler trying to put my house on your foot. Get your athlete's foot out of my homestead."

"I don't know if athlete's foot on toddlers is a thing, Dirk."

"The metaphor was made."

She laughs a little at you and you watch her get up and leave, dialing on her phone.

Of course, she doesn't shut the door so you get up and do that for her. May peace and quiet be restored.

You lean back in your chair and put your hands through your hair, staring at the keyboard. Man, she really knows how to get you worked up, which is unfortunate because Roxy probably also doesn't know that now you're kind of upset and she's bound to push your buttons again soon.

Maybe you will have to get her drunk. Okay, that's a little mean, maybe not, but it'll make you less likely to get irritable with her.

You turn your computer off and get your laptop instead, throwing it on your bed with your phone before sitting cross legged in front of it, which sort of makes you feel like you're in high school again.

That thought gets you thankfully distracted and partially nostalgic, thinking about your couple years in high school. You didn't go to school with any of your brothers, but instead with Roxy, back when she would fill a water bottle with booze to class and somehow maintain a decent record.

You two went to some hoity-toity school for "intellectuals" which specialized in robotics, programming, and generally science-y math-y stuff. Roxy and yourself were considered above-average and set with high standards from a young age, but you guess neither of you didn't meet those expectations. You both did really well.

Which in retrospect you guess wasn't too bad, but the both of you were kind of emotional wrecks. Roxy was constantly on mood swings and drunk meanwhile you both suffered some intense self-esteem issues and depression. Which is another unfortunate trend in your family.

You guess you try to forget that because it was a few years ago now and you have a job and a diploma and you're both on your feet like average adults.

Yeah, you're alright. Most kids have a rough time in high school, it's normal.

You jump and are taken out of your mindcloud when the buzzer rings, assumably being the delivery guy, and then you hear Roxy padding across the apartment and going out the door. You get off your bed and go to the kitchen to grab plates for her when she comes back.

The next day you wake up to Roxy annoyingly walking across your bed and then plopping down next to your body with a cardboard drink holder and a paper bag, repeating "wake up wake up, wake up Dirky". You groan and turn over to try and push her off with your feet, putting an arm over your eyes.

She doesn't give up on it though, instead she climbs over your protesting legs and sits on you, waving the paper bag in front of your face. You smell frosting and open an eye to look at her, she is putting on her best patient face.

"I gotchu donuts and coffee, let's chow."

You groan again and push the bag out of your face, "I was up late, try again in 8 hours."

"Oh yeah, more like up early. Wake up. Wake up."

If not for the coffee in her hand, you would try pushing her off again. You sit up and stretch your arms, she promptly backs off.

Within the hour, you're in your living room playing cards with her on the floor and she is kicking your ass. Rubbing it in your face that she's winning, too. You complain with the excuse you never cared for cards.

Fifteen minutes later, you're toe to toe in a round of 1-on-1 Halo and spouting obscenities at each other, which goes on for a while until the door rings. You two look at each other and pause the game (you tell her you're going to kick her ass if she unpauses without you).

You open the door to find no one is there, you look down and there's no package either, when you look on the door, there's a note. You pluck it off, look down the hall both ways, and retreat to your living room.

Roxy's her typical curious self and nearly climbs on you to read it, and you have to push her face just to comfortably sit. It's a note in bright green curvy writing that says "be at apartment 704 at 6:30!!" There's an additional drawing of a dog in the corner with its tongue out.

Roxy awww's and asks what it's about, so you tell her the neighbors invited you and her over, since you made friendly and now they want to be buddy-buddy.

"So we goin', right?"

"I told her we were."

A big grin forms on her face and you throw the note aside, picking up your controller and unpausing the game before Roxy has a chance to pick up hers. You shoot her and she shoves her foot in your face, yelling empty threats again.

The both of you play a few rounds before you grow tired of videogames and lounge around watching TV instead. Roxy's eating chips and has her feet by your ribs and you have yours by hers, except you're on your phone.

You're checking your notifications on (one of) your websites when you finally get a text back from Jake. You sort of delay on opening it because you're editing a lengthy paragraph but you get to it in less than four minutes.

"Oh gee i finally read your text.. Sorry about that hello dirk!"

You squint at it, wondering if he has shit grammar or a broken comma button. Wait, who the hell has buttons on their phones anymore?

"It's cool, hey. Tell your sister nice note by the way." You glance at it on the table.

Bzzt. He replies in no time. "Haha yes i will. I thought it was a bit silly but shes glad you got a kick out of it!"

You reply, "Roxy is excited I think."

"Roxy? Is that your half sisters name?"

"Yeah, Roxy Lalonde."

"Lovely name! Anyway im glad we spoke but i have to help jade with these plants ill talk to you later perhaps!" The lack of commas confuses you still.

You show Roxy the text Jake sent you about her name and she goes, "Aw whatta sweetheart," so you text him her reaction and send a semi-sarcastic "good luck".

==> It is almost 6:30, you are Jake English, and you are not sure why you're anxious.

You can't honestly have some infatuation with the boy across the hall! Perhaps it's a mixture of the new environment and the idea of hosting a small get-together. You could only hope for the latter.

Gosh, this is so embarrassing! You're not usually so fidgety! You can't let Jade see you like this...

But it's making you wrack your brain and it's infuriating because you still don't know the guy! This is so premature! And.. And unwanted! The thought of seeing him again makes you into some hormonal teenager who's stomach is compromised majorly of butterflies.

Just that thought makes you want to roll up and die, which seems even moreso like a teenager thing to think, and so the cycle continues.

"Jake, come on, what am I waiting on you for." Oh, Jade, please.

You get to your feet and open the door, scowling slightly at Jade. Jade, who is accompanied by two familiar blondes. You shut the door abruptly, although you wish you could shut the door on yourself because that was STUPID!

Oh, and just your luck, you hear the new laugh of a girl. Roxy's, you presume. You look in your mirror, run your hands through your hair quickly and adjust your collar, and as soon as you reach for the door to open it, Dirk is standing on the other side, knuckles in front of himself as if about to knock on something that isn't there.

He raises an eyebrow at you, "Y'alright there?"

"Oh yes, perfect, I was just uh, fumbling a bit. Because I was.. Taking a cat nap. Quite refreshing, although badly timed." You'd kill a man for a rewind button on your life.

He promptly steps back, giving you your space and you waddle around him, looking to follow Jade instead of being cornered into further speaking with an acquaintance who you are questioning your intentions with.

You see she is talking with Roxy, showing her a photo of your grandparents, each from a different side. You look back at Dirk, who is standing watching like you are, and debate on going against your judgement and speaking with him anyway. Just a chat about his (half) sister! Innocent.

You don't and look back at the girls instead, approaching them. You decide to perhaps formerly introduce yourself when Roxy says hello.

"Hello again, I'm Jake English. Apologies for practically being involved in some sort of altercation when we met, that was a bit unfortunate."

"Don't worry about it, BB, 's all good. I dont blame you for wrangling away someone who's beatin' on your friend, pshh." She takes your hand in both pale hands, nails painted black you notice, and shakes it loosely.

"Thank you, thank you." You say, rather quietly. "Ah, anyway, Jade cut some fruit for us and put out way more snacks than I think to be reasonable, so help yourselves."

Jade pinches you and you make a small noise of protest, narrowing your eyes at her. Roxy laughs again. You think she enjoys humiliation.

Roxy and Jade take their seats, Roxy on the end of the couch, Jade in a chair, and you sit on the opposite side of the couch, listening to them begin to talk again.

"Are you in college?" Roxy asks your sister.

"No, I don't think it'll do me much good except run a high check, you know?"

"Yeah, for reals, it's too much overall."

"So you're not in college either?"

"Nah, Dirk and I got some sweet connections fresh outta.. Our teen years. I mean, high school teen years. Minors."

Jade giggles at her, "Yeah I get what you mean. What kind of connections, like jobs?"

Dirk sits next to you and Roxy, putting an arm over the back of the couch, intervening in the conversation himself, "That's classified."

Roxy looks across Dirk and at you, as if trying to say "can you believe this guy?"

Jade asks, "What, really?"

"No, ohmygosh," you swear those words mush together, "they're government jobs, and there actually isn't much we can tell you, but it's not *classified*." She puts up air quotes.

"That sounds spectacular, and assuming we are all about the same age, impressive!" You chime in.

"How old are you, Jakester?" You sort of make a face at the nickname. Not a displeased one, just a face.

"I'm nineteen, Jade's a year younger."

"Oooh, so are Dirk and I! Nineteen, I mean." You nod at her response, feeling as if you're forcing a smile.

Roxy turns to Jade and leans over the couch, trying to touch her knee and seeming to get quieter. That seems to divide the conversation due to the fact you both appear to be excluded from the whisper party, so Dirk turns his head to you. Oh, fantastic.

"Secrets to tell as always. Psh."

You try to make it seem subconscious, but you lean away from him and put your head on your hand, looking mostly in front of you and at the entertainment systems against the wall. Avoiding anything resembling eye contact seems like a safe route.

"Ah right, do you enjoy movies?"

He almost seems to mull this question over, which you're frankly somewhat thankful for because you're (obviously) a huge fan of cinema, "I'm impartial." You take that thought back.

"Oh, uh, well we did intend to play something, if not for at least background noise. Do you take a fancy to a genre?"

You feel his head turn toward you and you instinctually look back, feeling a bit under a spotlight. "Do I *fancy* a genre?"

"Um. Yes?"

"Haha, man, I have to ask who taught you your sentence structures if you're unironically asking what I "fancy"."

You sure could use a cool rag right about now. "My grandmother of course..! I learned to speak in England, though."

He adjusts his pointy sunglasses at you, apparently satisfied with that answer. "You can put on whatever."

You impulsively lightly jab his shoulder, trying to seem like one of those casual bro-dudes, "Whatever, it will be, my man."

You watch his expression and his mouth curves upward before he slaps a hand over his face, laughing into it. You pout a little and look at Roxy, who looks a little stunned.

"What did you say, o-m-g." You shrug, honestly unsure.

He snorts once or twice and you keep that displeased expression on your face, wondering if he's laughing at you or... Not. Although you're not sure what else he would laugh so easily at, when you've only ever seen him hold his posture, and do that very well.

He recollects himself quickly while you turn away and cross a leg over the other, looking out the patio door.

The sun is approaching the horizon while the clouds overhead dissipate into nothing, creating a collage of pink blue and purple that you find yourself enjoying. Moreso than this event, anyway.

Suddenly your stomach is churning and you feel a presence over you, and you're not sure whether or not to give in and stop your grumpy act to look.

"What're sunsets like in Hawaii?" A voice not too far from your shoulder says, and you jump and yelp, turning your head to quickly to meet gaze with Dirk who is awful close. Emphasis on awful.

His body is turned similar to how yours is except he put his arm over your side of the couch instead of Roxy's and he's leaned forward to see what you're seeing. It's very intimidating, you think, and you can't help but feel as if you're staring but it's also hard not to when he's in close proximity like that.

He looks unfazed by your startled reaction, although you can't tell where he's looking, "They're almost always.. Er, colourful I suppose. Almost every day was warm, even at night, and especially humid, which made them red quite often. Very beautiful most days."

Dirk moves and gets up from the couch, going to the sliding door and walking outside with all fluid motions. You take a discreet deep breath and looks over at Jade, who is looking back at you for whatever reason. Then Roxy follows her gaze and they're both looking at you.

"What?"

"Go show Dirk the plants."

Oh, if Roxy weren't there, you'd snap at Jade for sure. You do what she tells you anyway, but not before giving her a dirty look.

You shut the glass door most of the way behind you, stepping around some spilled mulch and leaning against the balcony ledge, looking over the scattered city with disinterest. Dirk is some 7 feet away, doing the same as you.

You get distracted in the maze of streets and cars, watching them pass by each other in some sort of uncoordinated competition. You get so distracted you don't even notice Dirk move, he's now somewhere behind you and speaking.

Again, you're slightly startled, "You know all their names?" You turn your head and get off the patio ledge, to look at him; he's sitting on a stool and looking over Jade's flowers.

You approach and sit on a stool opposite him, "You're spectacularly sneaky, Strider." You think he looks up at you, "The one you're leaning over, this one, that's a calatheas. This isss an anthurium I believe. These ones are herbs." You point at several small pots, varying in size, "Mint, cilantro, thyme, chervil, dill, parsley. There's some more scattered around."

He's nodding now, continuing to observe. You discreetly watch Dirk, thinking of what to say, just to say something.

"What's the story of the half-siblings?"

He turns his head to you, pausing to think, you assume, "Their names are Rose and Roxy, and my.. Dad sort of slept around I guess. They grew up in New York for most of their lives with their mom while my brothers and I stayed in Texas with Bro. I mean. Whatever." He starts mumbling and looks down at the table.

You consider that, assuming it must be.. Sort of rough! You think about the last time he talked about them, saying he had five siblings, by you've heard him say he had two brothers and two half-sibling sisters.

"Um.. That's four siblings. Didn't you say you had five?" Maybe he was counting himself?

"Yeah." Or not. He holds up a hand, putting down a finger with each name, "Roxy, Rose, Hal, Dave, Davis, plus me." You kind of want to point out the alliteration pattern in names but you figure he's heard his fair share of those comments.

"So you excluded one..? Are they like the black sheep of the family or something?" Dirk's staring at the sky again, watching the light disappear from the distance.

"No. Hal and I are twins and Dave and Davis were twins." His form of tense changed, you notice, which gives you a sinking feeling in your stomach and you're not sure why. "We got some fucked up genes, especially to have two pairs of twins."

You don't know if you should ask anymore but you're also curious. You bite your lip, looking at the plants.

"Okay, don't look so obvious in wanting to ask more, geez. What's up."

Oh. He's quite intuitive. "Well you.. Changed your tense with Dave and Davis. 'Were twins', you said."

He clears his throat, "Yeah. Well, Davis was a pretty unhappy kid, to start off with, he had some identity issues and self-esteem crap going on. It really affected him and he ended up just... Ending it last year. You know what I mean..?" There was this ongoing pause, like he was back in that time again. "And he was only sixteen. It completely ruined Dave."

You aren't sure what to say, you've never even be able to relate. And a twin? A little twin brother? That's horrible. He speaks up again.

"You don't have to say anything, we've heard it all. It's also why the others have been visiting more often than usual, they're all secretly missing him, which makes them want to come together I guess." He scratches his head, looking away.

You feel compelled to maybe say something but it also seems futile. Instead, you ask if he has any pictures, and Dirk digs out his phone. He holds it up and its a picture of two boys who look.. Identical, really, and also share a lot of physical qualities with Dirk.

They have small noses and thin lips, both smiling, and they're wearing aviator sunglasses. You can see around the glasses they have freckles, much like Dirk, and one has that light blonde hair he and Roxy share, whereas the other has shockingly orange hair you assume is dyed. Their hair's cut similarly, but the one on the right has longer hair while the left appears to have some sort of undercut. They both look extremely skinny.

He points on the phone, at the boy on the right, "That's Davis." Dirk takes the phone, scrolling through pictures you think, and pulls up a picture where they look like they're on a beach and neither of them have sunglasses.

Without them, you can see they look less similar to Dirk. Their eyes are round, and their eyebrows are uncharacteristically dark as opposed to their near-white hair. You take the phone, looking closely, seeing their eyes are very unusual colours. Dave has red eyes and Davis has orange. You think they do? Dirk must've meant it when he told you he had uncommon genes.

"They look like nice kids."

He laugh-scoffs, "Little shits, mostly."

You kind of wonder why he refers to Davis like that, but maybe he just doesn't know how to. It also makes you think about Jade and how you think you'd react if something like that would have happened. You'd like to think you would prevent it getting that serious but everyone must think that, don't they."Are you all close?"

"Me and my brothers?"

"Well sure but also Roxy and Rose. It was Rose right?"

"Yeah, yeah. Us Strider's are relatively good, Hal's the hardest to get along with for me, because we are too similar I think, but we are tight as bro's. Lalonde's are two peas in a pod and they mesh together in my side of the family just fine, really good actually, considering we weren't a collective family for most of our lives."

Dirk strokes his chin and shivers. You're getting cold too, maybe you'll go inside soon. "Jade knew a girl named Rose. They actually um," you clear your throat, thinking maybe she doesn't want it public information, "the Rose girl and Jade dated in high school."

"Oh yeah? Her? Interesting." He jerks his head to the glass door where Jade *used* to be and you nod. "What high school did she go to? Or both of you?"

"She attended Santa Maria high school over in Maine for a year when those two dated."

"What? You're fucking with me."

"Um, no, does it sound made up?"

"Is it made up, because Rose went to a school in Maine called Santa Maria her junior year."

"As did Jade!"

He looks a little more emotive, as if in disbelief and a bit astonished, if you can call it that.

"That's like, max ironic, our sisters dated each other, man." You note he didn't say half sister this time, which amuses you. You actually laugh, mostly at the coincidence among younger siblings.

"My my, I must tell Jade." You stand up, off the stool, and open the sliding door, Dirk right behind you.

You look over to see Roxy and Jade in the kitchen making something. Something slightly odorous and suspicious. You head over, a smile plastered on your face, "Guess what."

Jade looks you up and down, appearing hesitant to answer that. "What is it, we're cooking." 

You lean over the bar counter that rests in the window to the kitchen, "Remember Rose, Rose from Maine?"

She puts down a utensil, looking disinterested, "If you're gonna tell me she's Roxy's sister, I already know. She showed me a picture and I recognized her right away."

You hunch over, slightly pouty, and Dirk walks to the counter, looking at you. Embarrassingly enough, you feel your chest grow slightly tighter.

"You should take me to see your room." That automatically gives you a knot in your chest.

You have to consciously attempt to level your voice, scared of it cracking, "Oh, well, there's not much in there.. Except for a mess, hahah."

He doesn't say anything, just keeps watching you and mimics your position, leaned over the counter and arms crossed under your chin. You think Jade's watching.

"Hm, well. Sure." You try, afraid your voice was noticeably high-pitched; you feel it was. Trying to ignore it, you push off the counter to walk to your room and push the door open, letting Dirk follow inside if he wanted.

Although you said it was messy so that he would likely be expecting it, you end up picking a pair of shorts and a couple sweaters and coats off the floor. You also shove a luggage bag to the side to make walking room. It's really not terrible, you don't have much with you aside from clothes, books, electronics, and your typical trinkets. It's plain-messy. Empty-messy.

There's some posters on the wall and several rolled up ones on the desk in the corner, ivy in the corners of the ceiling, a bed in the corner across from the desk, and a big black modern bookshelf taking up most of a wall. Right now it's holding some shoes and, appropriately, books.

Dirk bypasses your little mess and sits on the bed, looking closely at your posters. It makes you a little insecure, like maybe he doesn't like them or he thinks you're too old for posters on your wall. He looks away from them and glances around, stopping to look in the direction of your desk corner.

"Are those real guns?"

Oops. You rush to cover them up or put them away, "Oh fucking hell, I'm sorry. Jade and I don't think much of these anymore we just.. Leave them lying around willy-nilly!"

"Nah, it's fine, really. I was just curious."

You laugh nervously and put them in a holster, then throw the holster into the open luggage bag by your feet. Put them away? Nailed it.

"Roxy's good with a sniper, for the record." He says, trying to desensitize your embarrassment, you think.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," he says, "picked it up all on her own."

"Perhaps Jade and her can have a go sometime at paintball or something relevant."

"She'd wreck Harley."

"Nuh uh, you have not seen Jade with a gun."

"You haven't seen RoLal."

You snicker, "you two do have nicknames, don't you."

You swear he looks a tad embarrassed at being teased, "Not exclusively."

"Hers is RoLal, and yours was?"

He looks up at you, "DiStri."

You chuckle behind a hand, "They're like little abbreviations on your first and surname. Suiting."

Dirk doesn't say anything and you sit in the computer chair, looking around for a moment to avoid the glaring inevitable awkwardness awaiting in mere moments. Then you notice you don't hear anything aside from the gentle squeaking of your swaying chair, and a creak behind your door.

You look at Dirk and Dirk looks at you. You make a gesture as if to question if he thinks someone is behind your door, perhaps a sister or two. He shrugs, looking at it, and you slowly, carefully, stand. Then swing the door open to find both Jade and Roxy huddled in your doorway.

Your face feels hot, you cannot believe Jade has Roxy in on this now! "What on Earth are you doing?! Or- or listening for?!"

They both laugh, more like giggle, and inch away. Your face must be growing redder, and it'd be hard to deny it is. Augh, how would this go being explained if Dirk asked why they're acting like this.

You slink out of your room and step aside, waiting for Dirk to come out too, which he does. He doesn't look at you, and if you didn't know any better, you'd say he's feeling something like what you're feeling. How awful!

He puts a hand on Roxy's face suddenly, and she starts rebelling against his strange reaction, but they end up distancing themselves enough for you to just ask Jade to stop. She grins and you pitifully sigh.

Some time later, you're all gathered around the coffee table on your living room floor eating fondue and watching The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. At least, you are. And trying to get them as into it as you are.

You end up spacing out, beginning to feel lethargic, meanwhile the other three engage in a conversation on what they think is the worst part about soccer moms. You're not terribly interested in that either. In fact, you're a more focused on the fact that Dirk's little brother died, and not even that long ago, he says.

It's such a foreign concept to you, you've never suffered a close death, or really even were faced with that sort of grief. Maybe that's what made you think of him as private, he's probably just distant.

You look over at him, examining his place in the room. You don't feel sorry for him, or at least, you don't want to, he likely doesn't want you to feel sorry for him either, but the drastic assumed emotional comparative leaves you slightly overwhelmed.

Suddenly, you're snapped out of your daze, and whip your head up to the television, which has rapid gunfire on screen. Hm.

You rub your eyes under your glasses before readjusting them, just going back to watching the movie. The talking/banter dies down and you're all watching the old classic on the floor in silence, save for the movie dialogue.

Eventually, it gets a little late and Roxy says she will be going to see her friend now, so you say your goodbyes, tell Roxy it was a blast, and they leave. Jade turns to you after they're out of sight, looking quite pleased.

"They sure are fun!" You think she means Roxy is fun, Dirk only stoodby and made witty comments.

'Yeah.. I think I'm going to-" you start.

"Wait, what happened with you and Dirk?"

"What do you mean what happened?"

"Did anything happen?" She looks eager.

"Oh Jade! Geez! Knock it off, you've been doing this for days!"

"But you like him don't you?"

"This isn't grade school, I'm going to bed."

"DON'T you?"

"Stop pushing it." You are beginning to feel irritated, which is disappointing, because you were having a swell night.

"Stop avoiding the question then..!'

"You care way too much, Jade." You cross your arms, looking away.

She tries to manually uncross your arms, which you try not to laugh at, because you are trying to look fed up!

You look at her and she is still waiting.

"Ugh," you have to work yourself up to saying anything, this is thoroughly uncomfortable, "Maybe, I might, who knows! It doesn't matter."

She seems to bypass your dialogue, "And nothing happened?"

"No! Of course not!"

"What do you mean 'of course not', that's not 'of course not'. It's very expected."

"By whom?"

"Anyone who knows you. Plus Roxy, who knows Dirk.'

"What does that mean?"

"It means Roxy thinks Dirk wants to get with you too."

Oh, why does she have to word it like that. Furthermore, why is she involving herself in your love affairs (which don't exist!) and then involving others.

"I'm going to bed!"

She's obviously trying not to laugh in your face now, "No, no, Jake, no."

You're rushing away to your room and she's trying to follow, which proves hard to do when she is laughing hysterically at your flustered reaction. You're not really flustered though! She's just making you uncomfortable... Embarrassed... Flustered... Augh!

==> You're Dirk Strider, and you are driving your half sister.

Little do you know, you're in for a conversation as similarly unwanted as the one Jade and Jake would be having right about now.

Not yet though, because you're singing NSYNC in the car with Roxy, who is wearing your shades, and unironically enjoying it. Roxy gets a little too into it at one point and spits her gum into her lap accidentally and laughs almost deliriously about it. You chuckle at her.

She begins to calm down with a "Thank you Jimber Timber", and becomes distracted with texting for a couple minutes.

"Oh, right, so did you lay the moves on that Hawaiian hottie?"

You look at her, more solemnly, "Jake? No, I'm not going to go after that."

"Whaaat?"

You don't elaborate.

"Well? Why not?" You shrug.

"Okay, Dirk, you know why. He's totally perfect, and got those muscles all the other guys got. So why not?"

"He's the neighbor. Plus I knew his sister before I knew him, doesn't that make it weird?" You would add that he seems straight, but after tonight and the way he was acting around you, you are beginning to doubt that.

"Nooo, I don't see why it would. You live close by, so what. And you're the master of sneaking around, if things went shitty, you could continue to live there and never see his face again."

You groan, you're becoming disinterested in the what if's.

"The location makes it better I think, you could just call him over whenever and you have an empty apartment all to yourselves all the time."

You shift to lean slightly forward in your seat. Just tune her out man, you tell yourself.

You cannot tune her out, "I could talk to Jade, even, just grab his ass once or something."

That comment makes you have to resist letting her know you thought it was funny, although you do look at her with a slight scowl.

"Something! I swear he won't react badly."

"Oh psh, you think that's what I'm sweating over? What makes you so confident in that, anyway."

"Jade."

"You two are conspirators aren't you."

"She's cool too, you know. I see why Rose liked her."

"Oh, so now you wanna ride Jade's disco stick?"

She doesn't react much except rolling her eyes, so you guess not, "I'm just saying, the cards are in your favor. I know how much you love to pull strings and shit."

You guess she's right but it also rubs you the wrong way how she says that, as if you're a childish manipulator. You just like to be in control and make first moves, solid moves with reason behind them.

There's a fair five minutes of near-silence before you pull into a gas station and grab a drink plus fill the gas tank. Roxy waits patiently and watches you get back in the car.

You start the car again and look at her finally, "What."

"So," You can already tell she wants to drudge up something you don't want to talk about. You can only have so much time until this happens, "You gonna tell me what happened with Rufioh?"

"I think you got the 411 already."

"Okay but I didn't. You just said, 'haven't seen him'." She mocks your voice with an exaggerated Texan accent and a lower voice. "And whaddabout Cal?"

"Damn, double whammy over here." You're quickly back onto a highway.

She prods the spot over your tattoo, trying to push an answer out of you.

"Seriously, you know all there is to know." You aren't really sure how to word it, but Roxy's an adult so you try to keep it blunt, "I was sleeping with them, no strings attached, then I wasn't."

"But you liked Ruf."

"I liked sleeping with Ruf." You can't help but feel like you're lying to yourself, but that was kinda rough for you altogether so you push it away like usual.

"And Cal?"

"He was kind of a douche." You think on that, "A huge douche. He used to call me a disgusting fag and then.." You stop yourself, realizing maybe Roxy doesn't need to hear those details of your not-relationships. "Yeah."

"Haha, what?"

You look at her briefly and then the road, "Shit, it doesn't matter. I'm not seeing them anymore."

You also sort of wish she didn't ask, they make you upset, honestly. And for their own reasons. Maybe you aren't cut out for no-strings-attached sex, which is sappy as shit to you, but you're beginning to come to that conclusion.

She must've noticed your distance or something because she takes the shades back and places them atop your head before wrapping her arm around yours. You're not really upset over it at the moment but you appreciate she cares.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ghey


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow let's see how many times I can change writing styles & POV in one chapter.

There's twenty minutes of comfortable silence and radio before you get to the Crocker household, pulling into the driveway and taking out Roxy's luggage while she texts her friend.

She steps out of the car and takes a bag from you, walking up the stone steps to the large baby blue door, and when you're merely three feet in front of it, about to stop Roxy from vigorously pressing the doorbell, the door swings open.

There stands a short girl in red oval glasses and always-adorable black curly hair, ushering you both inside. "Roxy, Dirk, come iiin, I'm so happy to see you both again."

She wraps her arms around Roxy and then you, which is slightly awkward because she only comes up to your shoulder (when you're slouching) and her hug leaves her burying her face in your ribs. Ah, the perks of being above average height and having a below average height friend.

You half-hug her with one arm and set the bags down, "'Sup Crockpot." That makes her smile.

You take a look at her, the first in several months. She's not very different, although you think she got a haircut. Jane's probably no taller than five feet, pudgy, and downright adorable, with a button nose, full lips, and a round face. Her mother is Korean and her dad is half-Chinese, half-Caucasian, and she's inherited the black hair, but oddly enough, has comically bright blue eyes.

Additionally, she's got this tooth gap similar to Jade and Jake, and when she was younger she despised it, but you think it's grown on her. Character, she says. Adorable little Jane.

Jane's dad comes down from the staircase, in his typical-dad pajamas and a pipe hanging from his mouth, "Ah, glad to see you two made it before dark." Roxy snorts; it is about 10:30 at night.

He offers Roxy a hug and shakes your hand. He's always so formal, which you don't get because his formality is sort of outdated, but you guess you can appreciate it too.

"Cake, anyone?" He offers, and you see Jane give you both a look behind her dad that's pleading, yes please, take cake, we have so much, we are drowning in frosting and ice cream.

"Heck yeah Mister C."

"Um, sure." Roxy follows him to the kitchen and you look to Jane, "Should I put these somewhere?"

"Oh, my room please. I'll help- man, she always overpacks!!" She must have said that purposely loud enough for Roxy to hear, and she does, shooting a glare at you both from the kitchen doorway.

Jane doesn't look at her for a reaction but the look on Jane's face says she knows she got the right result.

You both take some bags and (waddle) up the stairs, Jane pushes her bedroom door open and places Roxy's things up against a wall.

Jane was always more of Roxy's friend, although you were definitely mutual friends, so you didn't see her nearly as much as Roxy did, or Jane's room, but you remember enough of what it used to be to notice the bigger differences. It's emptier, for one, and you assume she cleared out all her old stuff she probably bought as a kid (like the kitchen play set she had in her closet for years).

Now she just has a couple dressers, a TV, a bed, and some things like a shoe organizer and a bookshelf on the wall. It's simple.

"What're you looking for?" She interrupts.

"Nothing, just.. Haven't been around."

"Darn right, Strider, you haven't been around." One corner of her mouth goes up, but you see she looks slightly sad. You know why, of course.

You scoff, as if to keep it light before turning to go back downstairs while she follows after.

Roxy is at the bottom of them with three plates carefully balanced on her arms, you take the one closest to death and Jane makes a face, turning down the plate.

"I've had cake almost everyday, typically more than one slice a day, for years. Pass!"

"Oh, Janeycakes, why couldn't your dad just adopt me and I'd be grateful for all this delicious cake."

"Well gee, Roxy, way to make me sound like a brat."

Roxy grins around the fork in her mouth and you intercept, "Uh, so, really I just came to drop her off so I should get back home soon."

Jane abruptly turns to you, stamping a foot down, "It's so late though! Stay for the night, I haven't talked to you in so long! Honestly, you haven't even finished your slice."

There she goes, working her persuasion magic, "I kinda have work to do, Roxy being around and all, I already came close to falling behind."

"What's a few hours of missed work going to do?" You glance at Roxy, who's already eating Jane's neglected slice of cake.

"Put me behind a couple hours, mostly."

"Staaay!" Jane begs.

"Yeah, c'mon Dirk, chill with ya girls." Roxy says, now with frosting on her upper lip, mixed in with black lipstick. You give her a look.

"Alright, alright." Jane perks right up, taking your gloved hand in her very small cute hands. You still think she's the tiny baking princess she was when you met her.

"I have won him over, alas, reluctant he be." You snort at her and Roxy downright cackles.

She takes your plate from you while you take off your shoes and place them by all the others. The others being several of the same business leather shoes and Jane's variety of sneakers and flats. Her shoes look like baby shoes next to yours.

"Aren't you going to take off your hoodie? I can turn up the heater." You shrug.

The Crocker house even takes off coats and jackets while entering, you seem to have forgot. You take the plate again and join Roxy in sitting down by seating yourself in an armchair, crossing your foot over your knee and placing the plate in your lap.

Jane sits on the couch across from Roxy, facing the side of the room you and your half sister are on, "It feels weird knowing I haven't seen you two in so long. What's up, you guys?"

Roxy speaks up, "Rosey's gonna get an apartment wit' me I think! We still live with mom, but she only just graduated, you know?" 

"That was such a ball, she looked lovely at her graduation."

"I knooow, my little baby sister's all grown up."

You remove the fork from your mouth to speak, "You're not even that much older than her."

"Shuddup I'm reminiscing of my beautiful baby's ascendance into adulthood."

You shake your head and shove cake in your mouth, Jane giggles.

"What about you, Dirk?"

There's not a hair of hesitation before Roxy screams, "He's gonna have a BOYFRIEND!"

You choke on your cake, about to hack up a lung. Jane looks excited for half a second, then horrified and rushes to pat your back, meanwhile Roxy giddily laughs in a hysterical little ball.

It takes you no longer than 45 seconds to calm down and Jane sits back down, waiting for you to elaborate on Roxy's claim.

"Um, no, I'm not going to have a *boyfriend*, we were talking about this on the drive over. There's this new guy who moved in with my neighbor, Roxy wants us to hook up for whatever reason." You inform Jane with a little briefing, staring at the deadly but perfect half-eaten cake before you.

"Oooh. What happened?"

"Why do you feel the need to ask that, as if we already have some history. I met him like, last week."

"So nothing happened?" She looks to Roxy, questioning her antics wordlessly.

"No, whatever that means."

Roxy cuts in, "There's mad tension, Jane, I swear."

"No, there isn't-"

"What happened!" Now you're being ignored by both, you guess.

"Jake has got these little starry-eyes for oblivious Dirk over here, his sister swears Jake has the hots for him."

"Why am I hearing this now!"

You're shunned again, Jane keeps asking questions, "His name is Jake?"

"Yeah, totally a stone-cold hottie. Tall dark and beautiful." Roxy holds up her arms in a flexing pose, trying to imitate Jake's muscles, you think.

"Oh my gosh, Dirk, I don't see why you wouldn't go for it!"

You slink into the armchair, "I don't think either of you are listening to me."

"Grab his butt!" Jane declares.

"That's what I said!" Roxy, of course, agrees with.

You wouldn't get the chance to say anything if you wanted to, Jane is speaking again, "Aw, I wish I could be around for this."

"There is no-", you try.

"Jake and his sister are rad, too, you'd approve fo' sho'."

"Okay then." You mutter, grabbing the television remote and deciding to cut yourself out of the conversation rather than be cut out. All you've heard for the past two days is Jake Jake Jake. You would probably make out with him in Jade's living room just to make everyone back off, at this point.

Oh, miraculous, now you're thinking about making out with Jake, this is precisely what you wanted to happen and not at all Danger Zone.

You try to get that train of thought into a horrible train wreck by zoning back into the conversation; they're now talking about Rose and Roxy is explaining the weird connection to Jade and Jake they've had all along. More specifically, she has revealed that Jade dated Rose in high school.

"Ooh, I remember that. I mean, I remember you telling me what Rose told you about that girl. That's so weird!"

"Yeah I know, they sound like they move around a lot so the likelihood of having actually met them seems thin, too." Jane nods understandingly, "So what've you got goin' on?"

"Well, not much really! Probably the same as you two, just working. I start college next fall and my scholarship only covers a little more than half my tuition, so I've gotta work real hard this year, you know. Plus I can't have Dad paying for everything in my adult life." She sighs, as if that's a horrible thought.

"What're you doing?" Roxy asks.

She slumps, "Retail. It's hell."

"Whaaat, why don't you work in a bakery, you'd kick ass there."

"You can't just get a job in a bakery, Roxy, plus I'm fresh outta high school, no one would hire me." 

"I'd hire you oh my god." Roxy looks hurt that there's no theoretical jobs.

Jane laughs, "Thank you, I won't be late."

You glance at the television and then Jane, "You should come out with us for Fourth of July."

Roxy suddenly perks up, clapping her hands on Jane's knees, "Holy crap yes girl, let's party."

You mutter about how it's not really intended to be a party per se, but Jane looks between Roxy and yourself, "That's nearly two months away."

"Yeah I know, but she's been hyped for it 'cause she thinks last year was-" you shake your open hands to symbolize the flashiness, "so great."

"It was!" Roxy snaps.

Jane laughs a little at Roxy's offense, "It was fun, I agree. I don't have any other plans, so why not."

"Score. Gotta Crocker in the bag." Roxy gives one of her winning smiles.

Jane speaks up again, "Oh my gosh, remember when Dave pushed John's face into the cupcakes? That was devastating..."

Roxy barks a laugh, "Y'mean hilarious, fuck, he was so mad."

You absently cover part of your mouth, listening to their reminiscing.

"I worked so hard on those and Dave just destroyed them.. Boohoo."

"They were pretty cute, but he was like, trying to impress you or something. He's such a typical teen boy."

"Nonsense, he wrecked my work."

Roxy pats Jane's knee in joking reassurance, "Betty Crocker will never go out of business. There are more baked goods t'make."

"Speakin' of baked goods, is your Dad gonna come back anytime soon or.."

This time you laugh and Jane play fights with Roxy, "Stop that, that's my daaad!"

"Your foxy daddy-o. C'mon Dirk, wouldn't you take a slice of that."

You scoff, "Yeah, no, a dad? Like, more than twice our age? And our friend's dad? Weird."

"Thank you Dirk."

"Fuck you Dirk."

You roll your eyes a little, her commentary on Dad Crocker has always seemed a little weird. He's a cool guy or whatever but, gross, Roxy.

They settle down and you all eventually migrate to the kitchen, Jane makes hot drinks and you talk in there instead. It's almost midnight now, and Jane appears tired but quite enthusiastic about engaging in the conversation, talking about Fourth of July and meeting up again.

She brings up that there's going to be an event at an amusement park a week after Fourth of July, adding that she'd love to go. Roxy, of course, advocates for you and says "we are totally going." If you were to join, it'd probably be just for the simple act of going; you don't find much fun in carnival rides.

Roxy brings up moving out plans and they discuss that for a short while, Jane with her own possible plans if she can manage moving out along with college, and Roxy with figuring out how to do that with her sister. None of it really concerns you, you're already on your own (arguably have been) but you add a comment or two about good areas to look.

They seem to tire of that all, Roxy leaves to change out of her clothes and Jane asks where you want to sleep. They have a guest room but you kind of feel uncomfortable in there, so you elect on the couch. She brings you blankets and extra clothes, which you thank her for and she says goodnight, ushering you into a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

A few minutes later Roxy whisper-yells a goodnight and you hear the bedroom door upstairs shut.

You're probably up until 2:30AM watching television, which is a couple hours earlier than usual, but Jane's house is somehow super comfortable, and apparently comfortable enough to fall asleep with one arm over the side of the couch and drooling. Dirk Strider, stoic and cool, at his weakest.

You wake up around ten the next morning and Jane's in the kitchen with her Dad (amazingly enough, you're the last awake) making breakfast. You look around and find Roxy carefully perched so she's lying across your legs, and eating a bowl of fruit.

She looks over at you and smiles with a chewed up strawberry threatening to fall into her lap, "G'morning sunshine."

"Nn.. Morning. Where are my shades." You rub your cheek, trying to blink the sleep away. It's terrible and bright in her living room.

Roxy reaches over to her right and throws your shades overhand onto your lap. "Nice raccoon eyes." You tell her and sit up on one elbow and place your pointy eyewear onto your nose, looking at her.

"Yeah yeah, nice hair Kamina." You take it you have bedhead.

You sit up more so you're not hurting your back and reach into Roxy's bowl, taking a slice of mango and popping it into your mouth. She doesn't react, as per usual.

"Morning!" Comes a cheery voice, holding a tall plate of what looks like shaped waffles and pancakes filled with a variety of fruits and chocolate. The Crocker house knows how to make breakfast. Jane promptly sets the plates down, aided by her father who has cups, utensils, and syrup.

"Good to see you're all awake." Her dad says, and you nod to him.

"Thanks." You say, meanwhile Roxy looks like she's trying to swallow a piece of melon way too large.

You sit up so Jane has room to sit with you and Roxy, meanwhile her father sits in the armchair to eat with you all.

Your sister ends up gushing animatedly about how much she loves food and declares Jane marries her right there, and for whatever reason, her Dad starts blubbering.

You're not sure what to do about that so you end up staring and Jane has to console her father, repeating "I'm not getting married, Daddy, it's okay, please calm down." Jane gives you a guilty look. Her dad is super sentimental you've discovered, and gets extremely emotional about Jane's achievements, big or small, and never wants her to grow up.

You're also not sure whether that's endearing or pitiable. Maybe a mixture of both? Roxy looks guilty now too.

The morning passes comfortably and eventually you decide to head back home, Roxy and Jane have their own plans anyway.

You're showered in hugs and kisses from Jane and Roxy hugs you too, saying goodbye. Mister Crocker waves a goodbye and sends you on your way with literally two large cakes, even though you're not sure you're going to eat them, and you get on your way home.

==> Your name is Jake English and you've come to a concise conclusion.

That conclusion would be... It's..... The thing is,

You're frustrated. You have a conclusion! A decision, even!

Who are you kidding, no you don't, you're way too chicken to come to terms with this stuff, no less act on it.

Ever since you met Dirk, which is only an embarrassing five days ago, your mind always trails back to him, or what he's told you, or what his family is probably like, or how much you want to have him.

Oh, there you go again, thoroughly humiliated by yourself and rolled up in a mushy little ball on your bed.

The point is though, you are very sure (you think?) that you're attracted to Dirk (possibly). It'd make sense though, right? Heterosexual men don't think of other men the way you think of Dirk.

The second part of your conclusion-slash-decision was to pursue him as a friend, and see what you end up with then. You are admittedly afraid of that, because you could find out something you don't like, or he finds out something he doesn't like about you. He could have too much on his plate for you too, or worse, have a girlfriend.

What if he has a girlfriend!

Jade says she saw him with other men but you're not sure how recent that was or what that means. Dagnabbit.

You've never been good at handling your romantic endeavors (you dare call it that), your thoughts are clouded by the negatives and anxiety, you're just not sure what to do or think, and no way you're going to Jade, she'd jokingly tell you to do something silly like send a singing telegram.

This has got you worrying on and off what seems like constantly, you think it's time to quit this nonsense and take a break over in the kitchen.

You turn on the kettle and begin looking through the fridge for bread when your phone buzzes on the counter behind you. You take out the loaf and set it down to read the message you received, seeing it's an unrecognized number.

Against better judgement, you open it anyway and read, "ey jakers its roxy ;3". How did she get your phone number? Did Jade give it to her?

Before you have time to reply, you get another, "my elite hax0r skillz have led me to u in case u were wondering", and then another just as quick, attached with three photos, "ps look at this fckn dork".

One's a picture of Roxy and a black haired girl with red glasses, one's of Dirk lying on his stomach sleeping and looking uncharacteristically mussed, and another's of Roxy pouring a glass of water on Dirk's back while he sleeps.

Even when you try to escape your anxiety, it finds you. Although, you can't help but find the pictures oddly charming, save for the one where Dirk is dead asleep and being hilariously pranked. You also see that there's some funny mark under one of his sleeves, and you think you've seen it before but passed it off as nothing, but by jovy, he has a tattoo.

A silly looking one at that.

Instead of staring at the photos for five whole minutes while the kettle screams behind you, you reply to Roxy with a simple "Oh that is hilarious."

Once you've made your oversized sandwich and tea and sat down, you pick your phone up again and read another one of Roxy's texts. "btw dirk should b comin home soon and our friends dad sent him home w like 2 whole cakes u and jade should totes take one off his hands for him".

That's sort of peculiar to you, "That sounds a bit like a set up roxy are you also an elite pranker out to smash cakes in my face?"

While you eat and wait for her reply, you save her contact as RoLal. Those nicknames are quite fun, you think.

Bzzzt, "wat nooo dirk doesnt have the pranker spirit hes a huge party pooper who would disobey any requests for hilarious shenanigans". She would know better than you, you suppose.

As you're typing back, she sends another, "just greet him l8r he will be desperate to get rid of those things". Sounds innocent enough.

"Um sure. I will thanks." You finish your lunch and put your plate in the dishwasher; Roxy doesn't reply.

As if on cue, you hear the faint sound of keys jingling and you move to see who it is in the hall- and yes, it is Dirk. He looks over and nods at you, two large boxes stacked on top of each other in one hand and pushing his door open with the other.

"Hey," he says. You reply in greeting and he offers you to come inside his apartment, to which you take him up on.

"How was the friend?" You ask, shutting his front door behind yourself.

"Good, we caught up." He toes his shoes off and (miraculously) asks, "Her family is real big on baking and every fucking flat surface is covered in cakes over there, and there's no way in hell I'll be eating these both before they go bad. D'you and your sister wanna take one home?"

Man, Roxy really has him spot-on, "Sure, why not. Do they have peanuts in them?"

Dirk smoothly glides one box off the other and holds it out to you, "Nah. You allergic?"

"Terribly so." You take it and discover it's much heavier than you anticipated- not too heavy, just unexpectedly dense.

"Just vanilla." Dirk walks down a hall and turns into a- woah, a pretty messy kitchen. Not messy as in stacks of dishes messy, but irregular items that do not belong in kitchens and strewn about kind of messy. There's a multitude of swords, puppets, funny shaped plushes and miscellaneous weapons just about everywhere.

Dirk opens his fridge and MORE swords fall out, amazingly. He nonchalantly places the boxed cake in there before shoving the swords back in.

"Good god, man, what is with the armory?" You blurt out with thinking.

"What do you mean." He looks at you, stone-faced, and asks that ludicrous question.

"There are swords everywhere..?"

"Yeah, where else would I put them."

"Are you pulling my leg?"

"You'd know if I was."

You're a little taken aback by that response and reply without much thought, "Oh-- okay."

He comes forward to stand before you, just within your personal bubble and you're reminded again of your helpless infatuation.

"Did you need something?"

You clear your throat, trying to think quickly, "No- well, I was- So I was thinking. No, not thinking, excuse me. We should hang out again, I mean. Yes, that's what I wanted to say." Holy smokes, get your ground, English.

He does that thing you've seen him do a few times now and the corner of his mouth turns up, except now it looks almost cocky. "Yeah."

"Yeah?" You repeat.

"Let's hang out."

Thank goodness that didn't backfire as badly as it could have.

"Right-o, I will.. Text you later, perhaps. If that's alright."

"Do what you want." You think that if anyone else had said that, you'd be offended, but you flash a small grin at him instead.

"Thanks for the cake, by the way, I'm sure we will have good things to say about it." You're in his front doorway now and he's leaned against the door, telling you he'll "see you later".

By the time you're back in your apartment you feel as if you're going to explode. You should've been more straightforward, spoken up, done something that wasn't blabber like a fool. You shove the cake in the fridge, frustrated with yourself, and messily write "From dirk. Have some." on the box.

You consider texting Roxy again, she seems to know what she's doing and how to react to Dirk. Actually, that doesn't sound too bad.

You fish your phone out of your pocket and quickly type to her, "You know dirk. I have a question."

A few minutes later she replies, "o boy do i KNOW him lol". You're not quite sure what she's implying but you go ahead and ask your question anyway.

"I asked dirk to make plans and told him I would text and him and he said "do what you want". Does that mean he doesnt want to do it?"

"what were the plans? howd he say it?"

"I didnt say anything yet about what we would possibly do and he said it the same way he says anything else. You know what i mean right? It wasnt any different than any other sentence."

"psh dont worry bout that hes just being an aloof asshole". You're not entirely sure if that is a sound judgment but you don't have any reason not to take her word for it.

"Oh haha." You text her back, feeling a bit frazzled all of a sudden. Feeling that's a bit short, you elect to add something, and it feels a little risky to do, but you've counted Jade out on this already so Roxy's the next best thing.

"I have another question."

"oh ya? ;)" That smiley face makes you feel like your brain is going to melt.

"Bear with me here. Try not to assume anything because i am very much aware how this will sound! But is dirk...dating anyone?" You leave it at that, you feel as if trying to explain any further with just dig a hole you're not exactly equipped to dig yourself out of.

"holy jesus jakey u got the hots for my brother" Ack! She didn't even answer the question!

"I did not say that!!!" Your fingers are rapidly typing and you take a moment to thank autocorrect.

"u might as well have, youre not v subtle" She will be the death of you before Dirk even gets the chance to be.

"You didnt answer the question!!"

"welllll i dont think he is but hes a lil touchy rn when it comes 2 romancin" That's an unexpected response.

"Um... What do you mean?" That prompts an explanation you think!

"u could probably ask him more about it but. idk how to explain it. they werent real relationships but he is def butthurt atm" Oh.. You feel a little bad about that, even though it doesn't really have anything to do with you.

"I see. I think thats all i needed to know. Thank you."

You mean to stop the conversation there, but Roxy is immediate in her reply as always, "w8 r u going? r u gonna ask dirk out?"

You stare at the text, your nerves spiking for the thirtieth time that day. You can't reply right now, not even you are sure what you will do. Is keeping your distance be-- bzzt bzzt. Bzzt.

You've only been silent for a minute and Roxy is rapid fire panicking at you.

"omg jake"

"JAKE R U GONNA"

"YES OR NO DONT LEAVE ME HANGING PLS"

"IM GONNA TELL DIRK U LOVE HIM IF U DONT REPLY"

"no i wont but I MIGHT"

"bitch"

Despite the inner turmoil boiling inside of you, you manage a good laugh at her texts.

"Please calm down im not love in with dirk and im..not going to *ask him out* as you suggest."

"fuck" is all she says and then there's about three minutes of text silence. Three excruciating minutes because that cuss in the middle of your conversation is not assuring at all. At all, you repeat.

"Roxy?"

"What is fuck?? Did you do something?? Youre freaking me out a little chum!"

"haha u said what is fuck"

"Roxy!!"

"2 answer ur question, no i didnt do anything i was just a lil disappointed"

Oh thank god.

"Disappointed?"

"ya like i was rootin 4 u"

"Rooting for me? You and jade ARE conspirators!!!!"

"lmao" she says, leaving you staring at that lone abbreviation and sighing.

"send me a selfie my friend wants 2 know what u look like"

You continue to stare at your phone and decide to oblige, taking an unflattering picture of yourself with a double chin. Maybe that'll get her to ease up.

"omfg maybe its mabelline" You smile at that, Roxy's fairly humorous when she wants to be.

"In all seriousness though... I have a bit of a confession. One that apparently would not surprise your intuitive mind! Point is i believe i may have an unwelcomed romantic interest or somesuch in dirk... *tugs on collar*"

The approximate fifteen seconds until her reply is dreadful, "fckn nerd u used an action in text i cannot believe ur dweeby ass" on the bright side she isn't antagonizing you about your admittance.

"Im glad you care about the important things."

"right well ur see thru this surprises no one, i bet even dirk knows"

Well there goes your hope.

"I suppose youd be right then. Additionally before i go wallow in pity could you do me a solid and keep this between us?"

"fiiiiiiiiiiiine"

The noise you make at her response is best described as "snrk". You go into your room and throw your phone on your bed before settling on taking a hot shower. You'd much rather do something... Adventurous, but your options in adventure are limited when you're stuck in a city.

You whistle for Bec and remove his collar, deciding to give him a bath while you're at it. He could use it.

==> You are Dirk Strider, confused extraordinaire- you mean, extraordinarily confused...Goes to show how ass backwards you are.

Like, you have reason to be confused, right? Even if you didn't, you are. Jake's just sending mixed signals, and it's bothering you a little. Before, you blew it off and told yourself it doesn't matter what he thinks or wants, because you're not interested, but circumstances must have changed when you weren't looking, because now you care.

That's also how you know to just accept facts, but you still don't think you could do anything with Jake, like if you're anything but friends you may just dig yourself an emotional hole so deep you may just have to reenact 127 Hours. Cuttin' your emotional arm off and shit.

Weird analogy aside, Jake is having a weird effect on you; he's growing on you fast, and you are pretty sure you've grown on him. You've got a mind that enjoys patterns and predictability, and your mind is telling you the past experiences say to just keep appropriate distance from Jake, you aren't doing as well as you let off, and if you were to get involved with someone, you think it'd just be more of a shitfest. It makes sense in your mind to avoid that with Jake (or anyone) for the time being.

Keeping hot Hawaiian guys off your mind gets especially difficult when you're in the shower, leaving you with slight guilt and that much more frustration.

"Leave Dirk Strider alone for a day and he works himself up into a self-loathing frenzy," Roxy would say when she saw you on Monday's after a weekend of staying inside. Looking back on it, it's kinda mean, but you can't bother to give a crap when she's just about right.

This is fucked up, you know he's hankering to get with you, it's pretty obvious at this point, and you must be wanting just about the same thing, but you also know you're gonna give yourself problems if you think with your dick like that. In all fairness though, that's not what you strictly have in mind, and Jake seems kind of too innocent for that sort of thinking, but you think the metaphor still applies.

...

A couple days later, after Jake finally texts you, the both of you finalize your plans and go catch an action movie. He seems really fuckin' nervous just about the entire time, and when the both of you walk out of the cinema, it's night. Jake starts babbling in the car about exactly what you expected him to say, basically putting his feelings on the table. Despite the fact you foresaw all of that happening, you still think it's sweet as sugar.

But you have to tell him you can't get involved, no matter how you feel. You can tell Jake tries to be accepting, but he looks really upset and asks why, and you try to tell him you're just not in an ideal place for any of that.

He doesn't talk any more, stares out your truck window while you drive. He must really have had his hopes up.

The drive is unnervingly quiet, but somehow not uncomfortable. Just before you get to your apartments, you tell Jake in some roundabout way that you do like him, in a more-than-bro way, because you don't really know how else to say it. You thought it'd maybe console him, like tell him he did nothing wrong, but he just gives you a slightly bothered look that tells you otherwise and just makes you feel shittier.

Despite the lack of discomfort on the drive, the goodbyes are terribly painful, and you have to awkwardly tell him you're not actually going up to your apartment, so he goes up alone, looking defeated even from a distance.

...

That night, you really don't go to your apartment, you waste time going from store to store, picking up conveniently placed auto-parts and extra nuts & bolts. Somehow you can always have more, you guess. There's a lot of bothered sighing from you. You'd text Roxy, but you think she's sleeping and you're not quite prepared to talk to her over the guy you've been non-stop thinking about.

You also do something really reckless, like a total jackass, and you know that you'll regret it, even as you drive over. Somehow none of that stops you.

You find yourself on Caliborn's doorstep, knocking on his door without much hesitation.

Cal and you have a history, one supremely less romantic and more sexual than the one you had with Rufioh, but still a history. You've known him about two years, and it's been a rough couple of them, but somehow you keep ending up here.

That thought sends you into a small panic, like maybe you genuinely shouldn't be there because you know you have others to go to when you're feeling shitty like this. He's just a petty rebound or something (a rebound from what, you remember, you don't have anything to bound off of).

You're just about to pull some ninja shit and disappear, but the door in front of you is already open and Cal is staring down at you. That's right, you're six feet and two inches tall and Caliborn is looking down on you.

You stare at him through your shades and you're reminded of why you took a liking to him in the first place. He's rude as shit, but damn he's nice to look at. He's got an even complexion of tanned skin, lighter than Rufioh's but darker than yours, and a shaved head. His appearance screams tough guy, he's big and brawny, minus the arm/body hair, and covered in tattoos from his neck down. Well, he has blank spots, but point is, he's got a lot of tattoos.

He's wearing a long-sleeved shirt and sweats, so you don't see much of them, but you can see the scales of a snake tattoo along his neck and under his shirt from where it's riding up over his stomach.

Your gaze lands on his face after two seconds of staring, harsh brown-red eyes watching you. He's waiting for you to either say something or do something. You're already here, and he knows you don't come over for trivial crap like hanging out, so you hold back a sigh and let yourself in, as per usual.

He doesn't really care about your problems, but does ask what you want, so you keep it straightforward and he obliges. Caliborn isn't a very good guy, but all you want is to push away how shitty you feel, take out your sexual frustration, and you can't do any of that at home.

You leave early morning, before he has to get up at 9AM. You both keep it short and he sort of just grunts "bye" at you, half-asleep.

Before you get into your home, you see Jade watering her sapling outside her front door. She must hear you coming because she looks up at you, watching, not saying anything, and you nod. She doesn't greet you. When you get inside, you can't be bothered to even look at your heap of growing work and land face first onto your pillow, remembering not to do so on your shades.

You fall asleep faster than usual, which you're grateful for since you usually take at least an hour to fall asleep. You just feel overall crappy and you think your body knows it.

==> Your name is Jake English and this is how it went.

Yesterday, you and Dirk caught a movie, a spectacular one if you may say so, and you had previously made up your mind about Dirk. Although you didn't have the guts to tell him you wanted to make the movie a date, you were happy to go with him anyway, and you were going to tell him how you felt no matter what!

To be fair though, you think you got your hopes up. The people around you were convincing you there was no way he would reject you, there were some signs around you that said "Dirk Strider would totally go on a date with you", you just kind of thought the odds were in your favor.

You couldn't stop thinking about it, trying to just work up to it for two hours while he sat next to you, seemingly oblivious to your growing anxiety.

The movie ending, although great, was like a blessing and a curse. You'd have to do it, get it out of the way, you wanted it! The both of you had exited the cinema, you talking to Dirk about how impressive and fearless the protagonist was and against all odds, carried on. He just nodded and chipped in his two cents; he mostly seemed entertained by your babbling.

When you got into Dirk's truck again, he only sat and waited while the heater started to work up and you were straining to break silence with inevitable embarrassment.

So you got to it, he acted calm and unnerved the entire time while you just about spilled your heart out, he made it seem like you were just reciting an anecdote and it intimidated you.

Then he told you, so nonchalant you wanted to push his face into dirt like a child, that he can't "get involved" with you. Of course, that went against everything you expected, so you almost felt like he did it to spite you, as if he wanted to make you feel like rejected shoe gum.

You felt like you deserved a better answer, so you asked him why not, and he said, (you're paraphrasing), "I'm not in a good place for that." He had started to seem a little guilty by then, thank god you weren't the only one with feelings, and he started to drive. Thank god for that too, you were too upset to talk to him anymore.

You were less than a mile from home when he spoke again, and that was the worst part. He started off by saying, "You're not alone by the way," and your immediate thought was _what the fuck does that mean?_ Then he continued by clarifying, and honest to god says, "I mean, I feel for you in a more-than-bro way." You could see the visible cringe on his face when he looked over at you and you were almost scowling.

Then he drove up to your apartments and you got out, and when he didn't move to get out either, he told you he had "errands to run". Your bitterness swelled up like a balloon but you kept your composure and muttered a "Bye." He did the same and you walked up to the lobby without looking back.

You tell Jade all of this in the morning; she was certainly wondering the night before but you just didn't have it in you to tell her the full story. She could tell you were upset though, and thankfully kept her distance. When you finish recounting that little disaster, she tells you she saw him going into his apartment in the early morning.

You're not totally sure why she tells you, but she also says he looked... Messy. That's the best word you can find, but her description tells you exactly what she meant. You don't say anything and turn over in your bed. Jade takes the hint and leaves after rubbing your back momentarily, closing the door behind herself.

...Great.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does the quality of something you're writing just suddenly deteriorate, and you're stuck there with your arm out trying to catch quality, but it just escapes you anyway? Here it is.

==> Your name is Dirk Strider and you are in some distress, divided among guilt & regret if you're honest with yourself.

Guilty because you slept with Caliborn, barely an hour after turning down Jake's feelings, and regretful for just about the same reasons. It was impulsive, that's your only excuse.

This is part of what you were afraid of when you started to come to terms with how you felt about Jake, the fact that you made friends with cool people who happen to live across the hall, but now that's your problem rather than a convenience.

Now you're going to have sneak around your own apartment, which you can do, but it's just sort of a pain in the ass. Being on guard isn't as second nature as your siblings think. Well, maybe Dave doesn't think so, since you two are especially similar in the way that you're stealthy as all hell, but that takes concentration.

Whatever, none of that really matters.

You take off your shades, squeezing the bridge of your nose. You feel a headache coming on, and it doesn't help that you haven't slept in nearly a full day and you've got these problems stacking against you.

Deciding to take a run, you change into looser clothes and take an ibuprofen before (sneaking) out. Not that you need to, there's no one really around.

You're pretty tall, with long legs, making you naturally fast, so your run through the city lands you in a skatepark in good time. Coincidentally, one you'd take your brothers to when they visited.

That's where you take your break, watching mostly high schoolers ride around with varying degrees of skill. A couple are pretty impressive with their tricks, repeatedly attempting the same move until they get it down.

You look up, seeing the clouds grow darker by the minute, a clear sign it'll rain soon. Washington weather is 3/4 rain. You leave the skate park and get back to your run, taking a longer route back home, just because you prefer to; running isn't really a health thing for you, it's more of stress relief turned to habit.

Getting back to your apartment without being noticed is just as easy as it was leaving, thankfully.

The run left you sticky and sweaty, so you take a shower, one of your infamously longer ones. Well, infamous among family, who would be annoyed by you hogging the bathroom.

You notice that your brothers have been coming to mind a multitude of times today, and you haven't talked to either of them in a while despite Roxy's visit. You figure you'll Skype them later, although that could potentially result in more regret because of how annoying they aspire to be around you. They know how easily annoyed you are...

Yeah, you'll wait to do that. First, it's finishing that hour long shower, then eating, then going out to go do more shopping. You've managed to run out of several things you use daily all in the same few days.

It's a very mundane process, getting all the gel out of your hair, getting out and running a comb through it, finding clothes and your shades, making food. Well, stuff that can hardly be called food, you eat mostly processed stuff because you're virtually a 14 year old at heart, who can legally own a house/apartment/condo. Pretty dangerous, giving a metaphorical child all the freedom they can have and letting them live on their own, but you're still alive and active so all's well.

Anyway, you grab a juicebox (that's right) on your way out and go down to your truck, starting it up. You look at the truck bed through the back window and see it's as empty as you left it, and you have rope in case you find anything large you can take back home. As a plus: you aren't seeing Jade's car around, so you hope neither of them are around at all.

Speaking of that household, you're so distressed over what happened and what you did. Jake is pretty damn likely to know more than you'd like him to, and you've begun to play a (one sided) game of avoidance with him so that's not gonna make shit any better. All you can do is sigh, and avoid.

You don't even know what you're afraid of, you can take being yelled at or whatever, but maybe it's that you don't know what to expect. Or that you might care what his reaction is so much that you'd rather not see it altogether? Maybe that's just your way of looking at "giving him some space"; avoiding him. No, that doesn't sound right.

Fuck, time to blow off that depressing bullshit and just drive away, going to Home Depot first since they have... _some_ stuff you need. You use/lose a lot of goddamn screws and nuts, you feel like you're back here every week.

Not that you are, but every time you come back, you think, "here again."

Yeah, it's a pretty simple process for you, too. They don't move their products much either, which is convenient, making it easy to even go on autopilot. Although you do stare at the extension cords for a second too long, wondering if you're REALLY going to need those.

Your room's floor is already covered in cords, if you dropped a drink in there you'd be electrocuted so hard you'd die twice and relive your own birth. So you decide, no, you don't need more cords. But you could live with some surge protectors. Yes, you buy a lot of those.

Passing the plants, you can't help but wonder if you should go in, being reminded of Jade and Jake. You don't know why you would want to, but those generic pots make you think of them, or more specifically, him.

You don't go in, or near them even, but you do feel kind of dazed now. It'd be really great if you could blow off these intrusive thoughts, but you're stuck with them and dealing with a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, albeit the kiddie coaster, but one nonetheless. You can't imagine what Jake's end is like right now.

Okay, fuck that, buy your pieces and get the hell out.

You do just that, muttering frequent sighs. As much as you would like to say you're ignoring this, and your own mind, you're not ignoring anything. You are very well dwelling over it.

Moreover, you feel shitty about what actually happened, how well you didn't handle it and how he seemed so... Let down. Like a sad puppy who isn't getting enough attention. That seems like a weird analogy to you, but that does it fair justice, and you would have done better if you could, but you're so not good with _this_ , it usually just falls into place for you if you wanted it to.

But this time you were confused and you think he was too and it's just very complicated on your end.

So you stare at the steering wheel in front of you, worn grey rubber grips under your leather-clad hands, and decide, again, fuck this.

You go home, bringing your things up with you, and get inside without a hitch. You turn on your computer and sit at your workbench, pushing some things aside and bringing others to you, inspecting your pliers while your computer boots itself up.

You check the time, calculating the timezone difference between you and Texas, which is only two hours. Not bad, Hal and Dave should be home.

Skype is opened and you message Hal, seeing his status says available but you don't think he changes it much either. You look over your work notes to see where you left off while you wait for a reply.

He promptly replies and you open the video chat window, aiming your camera toward your face-ish area, though it's sort of askew, but they can still see you.

There's a fair fifteen seconds of delay before his window pops up on your screen, black for a few seconds, fuzzy audio, then you see him with his cheek in his palm and looking supremely disinterested in seeing your mug on his screen.

He doesn't say anything so you do, "Hal."

"Hey." Wow, is all you think.

"What's up?" You try.

"I WAS typing something up but your clingy ass had to be noticed. Consider yourself my kohai, you have been noticed."

"You gotta stop saying stuff like kohai and senpai, it's creepy to people who don't know you."

"They get it."

You wrinkle your nose distastefully and pick up the scrappy mess of wires and sharp-cut metal sitting on your desk, "Dave around?"

"He went out to pick up an ice cream, should be back soon."

You nod a bit, "How is he?"

Hal seems to put a bit of thought into what he has to say, "Think he's good, his grades are doin' fine, but he's. Y'know." His tone tells you what he means (you don't need to be his twin to know he's talking about Davis).

You look at the mess of experimentation in your hand, thinking about him. Dave's both your little brother, and Davis was too, but you know he must be feeling it the most.

Everyone knew Dave got Davis' feelings, which were hard to understand from an outside view when the kid only looked like a little orange-haired wall of sorrow, but Dave got him. Twins are different.

You glance up at the screen again and Hal looks distracted by something else on his screen, "Your roots are showing." You tease.

He has white-ish hair like you, but he's been dying it black since you were thirteen because he couldn't stand you and being mistaken for you, but you guess now it just stuck. It looks funny though when he has these light light roots and then pitch black hair.

"It's the camera," what a lame excuse.

"Hal, shut up, I can see them."

He makes a face that's clearly meant to mock you and then puts up a very clever insult in the form of a finger.

You shake your head and grab a screwdriver, securing a screw in a corner of a little metal box shape inside your contraption and doing the same on the other three corners.

The two of you sit in what is mostly silence over video, as is commonly the turn of events, and then you hear the fuzzy sound of a door shutting before a glimpse of white and black is seen moving in the background.

Hal turns his body to look at him, greeting with the typical "Hey", returned with a "Sup". Hal ushers Dave over and he obliges, popsicle in hand and shades adorned.

"Oh shit, whaddup Dirk."

He says it as more of a statement than a question. You wave curtly, "Hey junior, how's it going."

Dave looks a little perturbed by the semi-insulting name and Hal looks pleased, like its funny, but inside joke funny. "Why you gotta do me like that man, that's not even a nickname relevant to me anymore." He sighs in faux anguish, "Anyway, check this out."

He holds his ice cream thing up and its a very sad looking Dora the Explorer with only one gumball eye and a large portion of her head gone.

"You wrecked her shit, now she's gotta go exploring for a hospital." You comment, pulling a drama frown.

Dave bites off more of the popsicle and speaks through the food, "Fuck 'er."

You snort and Hal looks back at the computer then at Dave, watching him, probably expecting more commentary. And he gets commentary, although simple, "A'ight I got sweltering hot bitches waiting for me, I'll talk to you later Dick. Dirk. Whatever."

"Really convincing mistake there. Later." You watch Dave go out of sight and Hal readjusts the laptop on his computer so it's facing him a little bit better.

"He developed such a fucking attitude dude." Hal immediately tells you.

"Nah, he ain't much different." You give him a sort of face as if to say "p-shaw". You then add, "What was that about hot bitches, he got a lady friend yet?"

Hal surprisingly shrugs, "I don't ask, he doesn't tell. But he's seventeen so I think you can form your own assumptions."

You wordlessly take that answer and see Hal is clearly focused on whatever he's working on again so you do the same and go back to working on your mess.

The two of you, after getting past your pre-teen mutual hateship, are pretty comfortable doing just that, you really only wanted to see what's up and work but you didn't feel like working totally alone either. Hal doesn't mind you think, he mostly works at home too and you think that's what he's doing now.

But considering the two of you are talking-- or, not talking, for the first time in a month, you decide to bring up the vague plan for Fourth of July that Roxy is obviously looking forward to, like a child on Christmas Eve or the   
first day of Hanukkah. Kids like the first day, right? You don't know.

"So Roxy's at Jane's right now, and they're making plans for Fourth of July again, you and Dave comin'?"

Hal glances at the screen. He looks disinterested, "Who's hosting?"

"I think Roxy wants to take it, probably up in New York."

"I'll ask Dave sometime, send me more details later."

"Tell him John will come too."

"Is he?"

"I don't actually know, but Jane is pretty likely to force him if he says he doesn't wanna go."

Hal snickers like it's a hilariously dastardly plan. It's admittedly a little manipulative, but you'd actually like Dave to be there. And you had earlier considered inviting Jade and Jake but...

Hal interrupts your train of thought, "Man, those kids are impossible to pick apart when they're together. They fuckin' attach to each other so fast I'm surprised Dave's twiggy neck hasn't snapped."

"Ch'yeah. It's kinda funny him and Davis would always bicker but Dave and John were total bros, they're so alike, and yet."

There's this almost awkward chuckle from the other end of the call and Hal looks a little uncomfortable. Hm.

"But yeah, I'll try and make it."

Try, he says. Lame. You know he would race to go, even your "party pooper" (Roxy's words) brother likes this crap. 

There's another extensive silence with the both of you doing your own thing, but you can tell he's still thinking about it. You can read him so damn well it's laughable, "Who was invited?"

"T' what? The Lalonde fest?'

"Yeah."

"Uhh. You and Dave, Rose, Roxy, Jane, John, maybe Jane's school friend, and I might invite a couple people."

"Really?" He looks skeptical. Asshole.

"Really what?"

"You're gonna bring some people?"

"Shut up prick, I might."

"Who are they?" 

"You're being nosey today, huh." You rub your chin and furrow your brows at the camera, "This girl Rose dated and her brother."

"You're going to bring Rose's ex girlfriend to an event that Rose will be at?"

"She said they're friends, sort of. Like on good terms or whatever. It's fine."

"Okay man, I don't wanna be witness to cat fights though."

"Stop being a dick, you know Rose wouldn't fight someone, and especially not fight each other."

"Rose can be catty. I'm betting on her in the fight."

"There is no fight, holy shit."

"What's reasonable? Like fifty? Fifty bucks on Rose."

"Rose isn't fighting her!"

"You better hope not, 'cause you would be losing fifty bucks. Rose may be small but she can totally bash a head in."

She definitely cannot, you think, "Okay, wow, no."

"You sayin' she can't? Stakes are raised to seventy-five!"

"There is no fucking bet, Hal, Rose isn't fighting her." You're tempted to hang up.

"We'll see, but when it happens, I'll be ready."

You slump in your chair and sigh in irritation, realizing a little late that he was only trying to annoy you, and totally succeeded.

Meanwhile, Hal has the most shit-eating, smug, "I won" grin plastered on his face like he knows exactly what he's doing and what he's done. You're kindly reminded your twin is a piece of shit fifth grader. The kind that repeats everything you say right up until you look like you're going to get violent.

Although you could very easily hang up, you just ignore him for a little while to work and allow yourselves to leave the idea of annoying the hell out of Dirk.

Soon enough, Hal either seems bored or he's taking a break, so he talks with (at) you, telling you about random stories off the top of his head, like the time he watched Dave ride around the front of his school and when he saw Hal there, he was so surprised he fell forward off his skateboard and nearly broke his teeth.

The both of you keep the conversations on and off for a couple hours, and then it gets a little late for Hal and both your backs hurt from having to just about hunch over to stay in camera view, so you say bye and sign off.

Despite your typical frustrations, it's a little refreshing. In its own way too, in a sort of nostalgic way since you two were always side by side until you both hit eighteen and you moved to Washington as soon as possible. 

It was a little selfish of you actually; Dave lost his best friend merely months before, you all lost a brother, and the world wasn't stopping for him. But it wasn't stopping for you either, so you got the hell out of dodge and Hal agreed to take care of Dave until he could support himself.

It worked out okay in the end, Dave's dealing with everything better now, you pay for them to come out and see you whenever they decide they want to, you have a good job, an apartment to yourself that you're satisfied with, people you know locally. If they were ever mad at you for leaving, they're over it now.

Anyway, diverging from your inner monologue, your apartment has gotten progressively muggy over the past hour and you feel almost sticky with sweat, so you put some frozen food in the oven (you take out the swords, for the record) and hop in the shower again for a short while.

If you were to look back at your day in the future, you'd have to say that you deserve a pat on the back for successfully distracting yourself and avoiding spiraling into depressive thoughts over neighbor boy. The rest of your night is spent mellow, without problems, and you remain productive. You do a couple more hours of work, work out and run, and still manage to sleep.

So, successful, all in all.

You try to keep your agenda for the next few days and attempt to remain focused when you need to, you are nearly distractions-less. Emphasis on nearly.

A few days is all you get before you think about your great big fuck-up and totally making Jake feel like.....something unwanted and rejected, probably. He definitely seemed some variation of mad, especially with this one specific sad glare thing he gave you.

You fucking hate doing this shit to people, and it sucks even more when you actually like Jake but are trying so hard not to make it worse by going on that date with him. You know you'd make things worse because all you can see yourself as is a jumble of pitiable emotions, a contorted plethora of negative feelings and self loathing, and that kind of person shouldn't be with someone who wants something serious.

That's at least how you think it works.

Roxy wants you go out and take whatever you want, like how she lives, but she's doing better than you think you are right now, so it wouldn't work the same. Jane just thinks relationships and love are. Erm. Lovely. Of course she'd want you to do something like that.

So instead you're trying really hard to listen to yourself and stick with this plan of action: take no action. And so far that plan has you on mood swings.

Swings that take you from okay to kind of miserable and then okay, rinse and repeat. You just feel really bad and you feel like your self-control is diminishing. In fact, this morning you checked your phone and almost texted Jake, just to check on him, but then you realized you'd just be pulled right back in and have it even worse for him.

Fuck! Oh, fuck. You do have it pretty bad for him. You don't even think about Rufioh this often anymore and he meant something to you for a long time. You're not sure what, but it was something.

Now you're doubting the plan of action (again) and you are internally dying to just knock on his door. You try desperately like a fourteen year old who just broke up with their girlfriend to just leave Jake alone. It doesn't make it any easier when Roxy is the only one who really knows anything and she would probably tell you something you don't want to hear if you bothered her.

You force yourself through about 28 hours, and then you give up.

[To contact Jade Harley: You home?] It's eleven at night, she is most definitely home.

[To you: uhhh no? why?] You take that back.

[To Jade: Nevermind, it can wait.]

There's two minutes of panic, but you change your shirt into something a little neater (just a black shirt), fix your hair, and get your kicks on before you wait outside the English-Harley apartment. Jade says she's not home, so you would kind of expect Jake isn't either, but you are kind of desperate right now, so it's worth a shot.

You can feel your heart nearly palpitating in your chest, your breathing is a little stressed thin, and you are nervous as hell, but you have already decided to at least see him.

After your two minutes of trying very hard to just breathe, your knuckles rap on the door and you wait. There's 21 seconds of nothing but increasing, insufferable, anxiety, but you are still trying to stay calm. Maybe once you see him you can calm down. God, you hope so.

21 seconds pass and the door opens, Jake is standing there without glasses and a shirt, but wrapped in a big white comforter, looking... Sleepy but adorable. Oh goddamnit, that's gay.

He blinks up at you and you do just about the same, then he must register your face and his expression changes from groggy and disoriented to being reluctantly pleased to see you. That's what you think that look is, anyway.

His dark skin and mussed hair is ridiculously attractive right now but you try to just focus on maybe talking to him.

Then you have to realize that you've been staring at each other for a second too long so you speak up, "Hey Jake." Your tone accidentally sounds a little broken, but you have kinda missed seeing him this past week.

"Dirk." He quickly rubs at his eye and moves in more toward the door to offer you space to come into his apartment. You take the offer.

Jake watches the door as he closes it in a way that tells you he's probably a little shy and avoidant right now.

So you get to the point; "I wasn't very cool toward you." You anxiously run a hand through your bangs and look at a wall, "I mean I was kind of being shitty, I didn't actively try to cushion whatever the fuck I even said at all."

He gives you this soft look, like he's spent his own week forgiving your attitude.

"I'm.. Sorry. Anyway. Yeah, I'm sorry. I do like you Jake, a ridiculous amount more than I gave myself credit for. I was uh... Well I've been under the impression I shouldn't see anyone, and maybe that still applies, I don't know." You scratch your head, forgetting you just spent several careful minutes on your hair.

"I honestly kind of wanted to see you again..." You trail off, going back to avoiding anything resembling eye contact.

"Thank you." He mumbles, "I was being a little over sensitive Dirk, it's okay."

"It's okay?" You ask, requesting his assurance.

"It's okay." Jake gives you a half-smile, almost a smirk.

When you glance at him he looks a mixture of relieved and a little less shy. He's doing the same thing you've been doing now: avoiding looking directly at you.

So you do what you wanted to do over all else, step forward, lean down, tilt your head, and kiss him. And he seems pleasantly surprised, pleasantly enough that he kisses you after you kiss him and then you're in each other's arms and peppering each other's lips in kisses. How'd you get here again?

His lips are soft and fuller, and he seems a little tentative, but you can't complain, you're currently liplocked with Jake English and loving being this close to him.

He pulls away and you open your eyes, seeing he looks a little flustered, hilariously enough. It's endearing though, and you don't think he's mad anymore.

Jake moves his arms from around your shoulders to under your arms and holds you tightly against him,resting his head on your shoulder. Honestly, you're not sure what's going on, but you're not opposed to it, plus Jake is comforting.

Later on, you and Jake are lying together on his bed and, simply put, making out. Everything about him is sweet and gentlemanly and caring, even his kissing, and you keep asking for more.

He's so warm and his tongue knows just what to do, which you wouldn't have expected, but it's honestly kind of hot to you. No, it's hot for sure.

Then you have to catch your breath and settle for just lying there with him. Jake looks content, but not just averagely happy, he looks at you like he's been waiting for you, which you guess he was, but it's just as endearing as everything else he does.

The way his eyes flit around tells you he's studying your face, and probably your freckles, probably wanting you to show him your whole face too. But you're not going to, you're just not comfortable with it.

Jake stops looking directly at you and instead stares at his sheets, picking at the gathering lint and has a thoughtful look on his face like he wants to talk. Which you are a little afraid of but you could see it happening.

He scoots forward a little, buries his face in your chest and you can feel his hands moving along your torso lightly.

He then prompts a talk into your chest, "What is this."

"I don't know."

Jake cranes his neck to look at you, "You don't know?"

"Do you? You asked the question."

"I was hoping..." He trails off, "Do you want it to be something?"

His voice sounds hopeful, but you have to try and be straightforward with him, "I don't know."

That must have been the wrong answer and triggered something in Jake because he pushes off your chest and gives you a look that screams irritation, "Then why are you here?"

You try not to protest but you do sit up, "I just wanted to see you."

"Ugh, you can't make up your mind, can you? What is this?"

He poses a good question, but you still aren't sure. You don't say anything because you think if you said I Don't Know again, Jake might really freak out.

"Just leave, Dirk. I'd prefer you actually know what you want from me."

Fuck.

Since you clearly no longer have any right to be in Jake's home, you up and leave like he told you to. Luckily there's no sign of Jade to interrogate you or something on your way out.

You get into your own home and drop your shoes by the door, feeling pretty finished.

Way to go man, getting back in then getting out just as quickly. But you guess it really isn't fair for you to just do whatever you want while he expects something from you. You don't even know where you want to be with Jake... Maybe it's better he kicked you out. No, it's definitely better, just upsetting at the moment.

It's not midnight yet and you usually stay up at least 4 more hours, but you're not feeling up to an all-nighter so you strip out of your clothes, take off your shades and konk out on top of your bed. You don't think you're quite ready to deal with your own emotional bullshit right now.

==> Your name is Jake English and you're mad again.

The first time you calmed down pretty easily but this time you feel as if you could wrestle a large mammal running on nothing but your bare-backed fury and adrenaline. Okay, that's a bit of a stretch, but you are still pretty irate!

Dirk keeps jerking you around like some sort of doll! A... A boytoy!

Wait, no, that's definitely not the right term. Whoops.

Anyway, he's being a mighty prick and you are not enjoying any small bit of it. He kept telling you "I don't know" when you wanted to know where he wanted to go with you, if at all, and it was just so... So infuriating! He comes over and gets a little feely with you but then he can't even tell you he'd like to be your boyfriend, as if he was just taking advantage of you or something.

Of course you're not going to take that! Especially after the first time and...

Sigh. You were just heart broken when Jade told you she saw Dirk after his stupid one night stand. To be fair, you're not in control of him or one who deserves to know his affairs, but his timing was so cruel, like he did it in spite of you.

Anyway, Jade had gone out of town for the night and Dirk had interrupted you while you were trying to sleep, so you fix yourself a quick drink and get back into bed with a movie on your laptop before passing out. No more thoughts of dicks who take advantage of your feelings!

You wake up fairly early as per usual and Jade comes home around 10AM with bags of groceries and new toys for Bec. Not that he needs them. You help her unload all the stuff she bought and she asks if Dirk came over, and you ask why she asks and she tells you about his text.

It's peculiar up until you realize he was too nervous to text you himself.

"Well, yeah, he did come over." You lean against a counter and cross your arms.

"You don't look very happy about it, Jake."

"I'm not! I mean, I was at the time but he just keeps yanking me around."

"What'ya mean?"

"To keep a story short, he can't make up his mind."

Jade folds up the bags and puts them into a pantry before looking at you, mimicking your position, "I'm sorry Jake. But if he's on the fence, I think the odds are really in your favor! Like, he's leaning toward whatever you want, you know."

"I guess? But don't you think if he was leaning toward one thing over the over, he'd go with that thing?"

"I don't know Jake, there's probably a bigger obstacle than his thought process."

You scratch your head, looking at the ground, "Maybe.. Yeah."

She goes silent for a moment but doesn't move, and then asks, "Want me to beat him up for you?"

Jade giggles but you're not amused, "No."

She stops and starts to walk out, giving you a pat on the back as if saying good luck. Yeah, you wouldn't want to deal with grumpy you either.

You spend a few hours after that lounging on the couch and watching television, specifically enjoying some very cute cartoons and classic nineties shows, but then you start to feel a little crappy after doing nothing for most of your day so you get up and take Bec to the park. Nothing like enjoying a day in silence with your dog.

After that, you bring Bec along to a creek trail and he gets to enjoy a little fun in freshwater. Up until a turtle bites his paw and Becquerel starts crying for you to pick him up and take him home. You literally have to pick up your giant of a dog all the way to the car and then again up to your apartment. Big baby!

A few days go by in a similar fashion, you run errands with Jade, spend a lot of your time wasting hours online or watching TV, very mundane schedules.

You haven't seen Dirk for a few days again either, and you think he may be doing that deliberately now, because you used to run into him on pure coincidence and now you don't even hear him, you don't see his car or truck driving around, nothing.

If it is on purpose, he is really good at avoiding people, and you're slightly grateful because if you did see him on accident you're not sure you'd be able to control yourself. He could use a good punch, you think!

The streak of no Dirk is interrupted four days after you saw him last and you hear someone across the hall knocking on a door. Curious, you look through the peephole and see it is indeed someone at Dirk's door. A very peculiar looking person from your perspective, but it's a little hard to actually see them when the peephole warps your perception, however you can definitely see they're dressed a little outlandishly.

You back away from your door and hear Dirk's door open, then there's muffled speaking coming from them. Being a little nosey, you pull on your shoes and decide to fake going out, just to catch a glimpse of this person and their conversation.

You think you deserve to know who they are when your relationship with Dirk is what it is! Sheesh!

After you have your shoes on, you grab a keyring and open the door, looking up at the two and feigning surprise, like you didn't mean to see him. You're not very sure if it's convincing.

Dirk is leaning against his doorway with his big pointy sunglasses in hand and looking away from you and at the ground, resembling a pouty child who is ignoring you, and the boy standing before him turns to look at you. Their look is a little intimidating, actually, especially when he looks you up and down as if you're lesser.

It's a Filipino looking boy, dressed in clothing you can only describe as punk, denim spiked jacket, leather pants, and an impressive red and black mohawk. The guy also has a nose piercing (you believe is called a septum?) and has some big ear piercings too.

Oh! Ooh. Ooooh..... You think you know who this person may be. Not specifically, but you've vaguely heard of his existence, you're pretty sure.

You didn't think Dirk would be into this sort of person...

Anyway, instead of staring at them for five seconds, you briefly wave at the mohawk man and walk away with a lowered head. Neither of them say anything while you're in sight.

You walk away feeling deflated and have to wonder, why on earth did you have to be that curious to stare and watch? You regret it. Now you're stuck wondering about whatever you witnessed.

Dirk looked passive aggressive, like they were probably silently fighting, and he had his sunglasses off for whatever reason. Which actually sort of makes you mad, why does he take those things off willy-nilly around that man but won't even touch them when you're around? What worries you more though, is what that person was there for. Jade says she saw a person with a red mohawk with Dirk before and they...

Ugh! Now you're just all worked up and mad. You get down to the car Jade shares with you and you just sit in there with your head on the steering wheel, pissed off and frustrated. Being so assumptive doesn't help though!

First you think you'll just have to play a bit of a waiting game for a while, but then someone like that man shows up and you don't wanna wait anymore, you just wanna tell Dirk off for.. You're not exactly sure, but you think he could use a good telling nonetheless!

No use sitting there though. Where do you go? You can't just go back empty handed.. Oh! Mail! You could get the mail!

On that note, you get out of the car and go back into the lobby, checking for packages or messages on the bulletin for your apartment number. There's nothing there so you move to the wall of metal mailboxes when someone walks by and you glance over to see mohawk boy leaving. It leaves you feeling relieved, knowing he only stayed for a few minutes.

You dig some papers out of your mailbox and turn to head back up when you're stopped in your tracks by Dirk standing about fifteen away and looking at the ground without his glasses. He doesn't look very.. Good. Maybe a little upset.

You look him up and down quickly and start to leave to go back up to your apartment, but then he speaks to you, "Wait."

So you do, you wait. You stare. You didn't really want this confrontation right now but so be it. You just have to try to contain yourself and the little bit of loathing you have for this man right now.

"Uh." Dirk walks forward and you watch him carefully, trying not to conspicuously stare at his eyes, although you're very curious now that he's not wearing his silly eyewear. "I'm sure you're wondering, so I kind of wanted to explain myself, if you'd let me."

His politeness is different. Welcome, but different.

You purse your lips and jerk your head toward the elevators as if to say, sure, let's walk. You don't really want to talk in the lobby for risk of being invaded by strangers.

Once in the elevator, you both make eye contact and he says he's sorry. You feel compelled to say it too, but you know you have no obligation to, so you don't. You just take his apology and look forward.

He lets you drop your mail off in your home and then go into his, where it suddenly feels claustrophobic, despite being cleaner than when you last saw it. In fact, it looks much more normal, there's no stuffed animal things or weapons lying around.

The both of you sit in his (very bland) living room, where the tension is just about so thick that every silence seems so loud. You try to relax but it's hardly any use.

Then finally, like a godsend, he speaks, "I gotta just come clean here man, cards on the table, I'm tired of accidentally pulling your strings and pushing buttons."

"Me too." You mutter. The agreement seems to ease him up, but you're not looking directly at him.

"I was- I was sleeping with these guys for a while who I knew for a long time, and that was one of them, but he just wanted to talk, just so we are clear. I got some serious feelings for him when I didn't want to and it fucked me up because we aren't serious. Weren't serious."

He seems almost embarrassed.. You keep listening.

"Uh, anyway, I tried to break off whatever the hell that was but it just made me feel like shit so when I met you, I was all butthurt and in denial of my own feelings and confused and all this bullshit. On top of that, I've been afraid." You bite your lip, knowing this must be difficult to explain, "I wasn't sure if I wanted to, y'know, see you or just be friends or what."

You're not sure what to say, or if this even properly explains what he's been doing, so you don't say anything still.

"I'm not good with talking it out man, I'm just good with doing what I do or accepting whatever potentially happens. I didn't expect to feel for anyone so soon after trying to get over Rufioh. Er-" Now you know mohawk's name is Rufioh. "Yeah.."

Dirk seems frustrated with himself now, roughly putting a hand through his own hair, "I'm just not always sure how to act, I'm sorry." He tells you this in a different tone and it makes you a little sad, like maybe you really have been taking this all the wrong way.

The silence takes over again and you chew your lip thoughtfully, trying to work up the nerve to say something. Anything at all.

So, you try to relieve his stress over this Rufioh person and ask a different potentially stress-inducing question, "Have you made up your mind?"

You're watching him carefully and his eyes flicker up to look at you, looking yellow in the light, then he looks back down. He's thinking. "I.. Jake, I really want to be with you but I feel like I've fucked up something we don't even have."

You feel as if maybe there's more to that, but you believe what he says too, "Say yes and I'll start to forgive you."

His eyes look up at you again, only this time, with a brighter look, hopeful even. The pause and the staring between talking is making you nervous and you can't tell what he's thinking.

Then, finally, he rescues your blood pressure and speaks, "Shit, let's be boyfriends."

The relief washes over you and your mouth twitches into a smile, but you let it. You're not sure if you can really so easily forgive him pulling you around the way he did, but you think you can soon, especially now that he's made up his mind and it's in your favor.

Without his sunglasses, you can read him a little better, and his eyes say.. Happy. He's happy with this.

You come forward and wrap your arms over him, kissing him square on the lips, which you realize you kind of had been missing. Dirk puts a hand on your cheek and kisses you back, making you almost smile into it.

You look at him without minding your dorky grin, you're very happy with this development and glad that maybe you can forget about all that other stuff. Except, maybe he could still have a problem with Rufioh, but that can wait because now you're with him.

"Are you gonna stay over for a while?" He asks.

You lean back, "Yeah, Jade's home and yours is empty, so, if that's okay, I'll stay with you."

"Feel free to." You notice now, once the sunlight is off his face, his eyes are very very orange, much more orange than you originally thought.

And, you impulsively utter, "Orange." Whoops, "I mean! Wow!" You clear your throat, "your eyes are just really shocking, sorry."

"Haha, yeah, I know. My whole family has abnormal eye colours. You saw Roxy and her pink eyes."

You place your hands on his face and look at them very deliberately, amazed, forgetting that maybe it makes him a little uncomfortable. "Is this why you always wear sunglasses?"

"Sort of. My eyes are also just very sensitive, I could go blind without them."

Oh. "Oh. Wow. What're the others eyes like?"

"Our dad has red eyes, which is somehow the abnormal overriding gene, and me and my brother's mom have brown eyes, the Lalonde's mom has blue eyes, which was also overridden. Davis and I have orange eyes, Hal and Dave have red eyes, Rose has purple eyes. Somehow the Lalonde's got lucky though and won't so easily go blind so they don't usually wear this shit."

He purses his lips after the explanation and you are honestly a little amazed! Such a visually appealing rarity he has, Dirk is absolutely beautiful, and you end up telling him that, which he seems a little embarrassed about. You think he deserves to be told, though.

You peck him on the lips again, proud of your new boyfriend's beauty.

With all of your crap out of the way, the two of you can spend some of your day together, you watch boring TV with him but he keeps it interesting by talking over it and making fun of the characters while you lie mostly on him and feel his chest vibrate when he laughs with you. Then you get to join him in his room and he kicks your ass in a strange card game, plus of course, you totally make out with him again but all in all, it's pleasant.

Eventually you go back to your apartment, because as easy as it would be to just stay with Dirk since you only live across the hall, you think it's a little forward, plus you still have individual lives and Dirk works all night apparently.

Jade looks very dumbfounded by the fact you walk through the front door because she didn't even know you left and asks how long you've been gone, then you realize you're not actually sure! You look at a clock and estimate it's been almost two and a half hours.

"What, you accidentally left for over two hours?"

"Kind of, haha."

"Where'd you go?" She asks.

"T'get the mail."

She laughs, "Was the elevator stuck or something, Jake?"

"Oh, psh, of course not."

You retire to your room soon after and text Dirk you were happy to see him today, meanwhile curled in your comforter. He texts back, telling you it was fun. You're so comfortable and content there that you fall asleep with your glasses on and thinking about Dirk.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was precisely 6000 words, hell yeah. Also I'm not really sure what counts as EXPLICIT but this is Not Safe For Work, haha...

==> Your name is Jake English and you are near fascinated with your new title of boyfriend. You're supposed to be an adult or something but you are unabashedly proud and infatuated with your new relationship.

Of course though, the past couple weeks have been extraordinarily confusing and worrying, and Dirk's vague claims of emotional instability keeps you wondering if you're more into him than he is into you. You tend to forget those thoughts when you're with him, but when you're not, you're a co-dependent child wracked with what if's.

Anyone else would probably tell you that's not really a good sign or something like that, but you're no one but yourself, so you keep those occasional thoughts to yourself and go about your life.

Dirk takes you out on what you think can be called your first real date, and you think he was trying to play it safe with destination, but you're so easily wooed and swayed that you're completely wow'd by things like dinner and a movie, or what could be best called "a night out on the town", because you never stay in one spot for very long.

But you digress, because you're completely overjoyed just to be with him and knowing he's nervous about date destination has got you aww'ing. You're later informed by Jade that this is called the "Honeymoon Phase", but you think you knew that from your many movies showcasing new couples.

Well, whatever this part of your relationship is, you're pretty happy actually! Dirk is calming simply just to be around and you learn a lot about him and his personality just from these extra hours of time you've been spending together. So far, what you're learning is all good stuff, or at least interesting.

Dirk is very interesting actually! He has some rather unorthodox etiquette, such as thinking swords go in refrigerators- oh, and he is quite good with a sword. He brought a couple onto the roof, which seemed weird at first, but then you learned that it's quite ideal for such a task, and then he proved his swordsmanship. Followed by a hilarious brawl.

It quickly seems as if you could make a potentially good team, as well! His physical attributes make up for what you lack and you do the same for him, you've also become very comfortable conversation partners (as a couple should be, you would think) and that seems to be a good tie in your relationship as both companions and sparring partners.

All in all, you think you work well together, and it seems like circumstances have lined up pretty well for the both of you. You only live across the hall, you were both available, kind of. Well, Dirk wasn't _un_ available. Anyway, that hardly matters now.

You think that, as cheesy as it sounds, your favorite thing is making him laugh, which he doesn't seem to do often, or at least not nearly as much as you do. But you like it! He laughs when you stumble inbetween spars and when you get tongue tied with trivial words, and even though it's often at your own expense, you don't mind.

You've also come to recognize your differences, such as the fact that he does just about everything less than you. He listens where you talk, he doesn't move much if he doesn't have to, whereas you're using your hands in every conversation and can't seem to sit still, he's subtle where you're enthusiastic. He's deliberate and you're clumsy.

In an abstract way, you think you'd make an interesting couple. Or... You are one, you guess! At the moment, it seems like you'll never get used to that. Dirk's your boyfriend! He is your boyfriend, not Mister Rufioh's or anyone else's.

Speaking (thinking) of Dirk, he came over today and you're actually just about wrapped in each other's limbs, with you resting on his chest, except you've started to doze off and now you're thinking about Dirk rather than talking to him. Which you aren't exactly fixated in doing anyway, you talk to him a lot, and like you told yourself earlier, he does a lot of listening. You're content where you are.

He's also been taking off his sunglasses willingly around you, and as time goes on, he's doing it more, and the only reason you'd care so much about it is because he seems pretty set on not doing it whatsoever. But here he is, sunglasses perched on his head. Although, his eyes are closed, but you appreciate it nonetheless. Perhaps you're just taking sentimentality out of something that means nothing, but you're also an "ignorance is bliss" sort of guy, so appreciation in the gesture it is!

While he appears to be sort of asleep, you watch him and the subtle movement in his breathing, how calm he is in both interaction and rest but in different ways, how his scar from his cheek to his jaw is so much more apparent from your angle. If you look for them too, you can see light scattered freckles around his eyes up to his temples, much like his brothers' in the photos.

You slyly slip your arms from around his body and scoot up to press a light kiss to the corner of his mouth. Dirk's eyes open a crack and he sighs, contentedly you think, before kissing you a bit more directly, and you have to hold back a smile against his lips.

He mumbles a lazy "What?" and you tell him it's nothing and keep smiling at his sleepy face, which doesn't seem to bother him.

Dirk puts a hand through your intolerably stubborn hair and starts to slowly brush through it. He tells you, "I really like you."

You snicker a bit and joke, "You're in.. Like-like with me?"

That earns you a positive response, "Yeah, I like-like you." He pecks your lips again and you kiss him back.

You end up staying with him in his apartment for the majority of two days, deciding to stay in for both of them and do things like watch movies, part of which is spent listening to some spectacularly witty commentary over a certain Indiana Jones.

Dirk's pretty easy to get along with, contrary to your first impression; he was rather off putting and estranged. You weren't sure if he was criticizing you or ignoring you. Now you know he's not much like that at all, he isn't looking for a conflict or debate in conversation or much of a critical person at all. Well, he is about fictional characters in the movies you put on, but they're made for observation.

You're currently shuffling through your phone in a lounge chair while Dirk sits on his couch with a laptop and the television is playing some show you were never watching in the first place. He asks if you want to eat and you tell him that, yeah, you could go for something, and end up ordering delivery Chinese food.

"D'you and Jade have plans for the Fourth?" He asks.

"Next month?"

"No, July."

"Oh, July Fourth. That's an American holiday, I constantly forget. Uh, no, I don't think so, we haven't really actively celebrated it." Your family neither comes from America or lives in the country anymore, so you wouldn't really have a reason to in the first place.

"Well it's kind of another bullshit holiday but we like the parties, so if you and your sister want to come up to New York with me, I'll take you." He looks as if he's avoiding you with his eyes (which you can't see at the moment) and you think he may be a bit embarrassed at the idea of asking his boyfriend on a trip.

"That sounds like a ripsnorting good time!" You lean forward, already excited for the prospect of this trip a month and a half away.

"Yeah?"

"Absolutely. Is that where Roxy lives?"

"Oh, yeah. It's kinda of a family-slash-friends thing." He scratches his head, "I hope that's not weird."

"Not at all chum, I'd love to meet your brothers and Rose. And Roxy was a positive blast, I'm sure it'll be great." You smile at him and that seems to be a bit of reassurance.

"Cool," is all he says, which gives you the impression maybe he had been waiting to ask, nervous even.

You tuck your phone away and get up to go to the kitchen for a drink, staring at scratches in the refrigerator from swords while you do so. "What happened to all those swords, anyway?"

"They're in my room," he calls back.

"I didn't see them in there.."

"They're in a couple of chests."

"A couple?"

"Yeah, I kind of have a lot."

You snort, closing the fridge, and go back to hover over the couch, "Can I see them?"

He looks up at you and closes his laptop before getting up and leading the way to his room. Dirk crouches before two (wide) chests you had never before questioned and pushes them open. Yep, that's a lot. And they're not even organized, they're just thrown in, much like they were when they were oddly placed in his kitchen appliance.

"Jesus criminy," you mutter. He kind of scoffs. "Do you know all the names?"

"Most of 'em, some were just kinda dumped on me. The ones that look like this," he picks up two, "are Japanese. This is a Katana, and this is a baraka." He gestures to each respectively, one is bent and one is straight and they're both cut differently. Interesting.

"What about those?" You look at the chest to the left, which has some thicker looking swords on the top, all of which are straight.

"Gifts from and for my brother's. Dave likes European swords more and I happen to pick up a variety from time to time."

You crouch to look at them, too scared to pick up any, "Do you go to those sword conventions or.. What?" No one just HAPPENS to find such a large quantity of these things.

"I've been to a few, yeah. Bro is kind of a collector too."

"Bro? Like, your twin?"

"Oh, uh, no. Our dad."

"You call your dad 'Bro'?" You snicker, he is so peculiar.

"Yeah, I dunno, it never seemed weird, but that's what we call him."

"I'm not going to have to meet him and call him Bro too, am I?"

"Oh, no, you're not going to meet him." He pulls a face that tells you he would rather you not.

"Is he embarrassing?"

"Sure."

"Psh." You stand up and lean against the wall while he drops the swords he was holding and closes the chests back up.

"He doesn't really attend that shit anyway." Dirk tells you, which makes you suspect maybe they don't talk. Based off the fact Roxy told you their father ended up with two families, you think you could probably piece together a story there. It's probably not much of your business, in the first place.

Dirk stands up and faces you with his hands in his pockets and you watch him with an involuntary smile spreading over your face. He leans down to kiss you and you meet him halfway, tilting your head so your glasses don't get in the way.

You decide to go home a bit later, after eating, and Dirk gives you a very sweet goodbye, like it's Christmas Eve and you had a mistletoe in your doorway. You part ways and come to conclude Jade is asleep, although it's only ten, so you take a quick shower and go to bed, feeling positively overjoyed with how good your day had been.

The next morning Jade sees you and outright asks, "have you boned yet?" So you do a near U-turn right back into your room without responding. That girl...

You run a few errands and things with Dirk here and there, just out of convenience, and then spend another night with him three days after the last time you did. Admittedly though, you had thought about actually getting physical with Dirk (you think if you said "get physical" he would laugh), so you try for going there that night.

In terms of intimacy, the most you two had done was just heated clothed groping, and then someone would fall off a bed or something and you'd stop because you would be laughing too hard.

In some lame attempt to take it that extra distance, you ask to use his shower and he says, yeah sure go ahead. Before you do though, you tell him he's welcome to join you and he completely stops moving, you think he even stops breathing for a second or two.

Rather than getting flustered and chickening out, you get into his shower, admittedly a little rushed, and try to calm down a bit. You've never had sex with a man... Not that you may even now! But still, you lost your virginity to a girl and only ever had sex with girls after that.

The water is hot and thankfully does the trick, getting you to calm down. A while later, Dirk knocks on the door and comes in, saving you possible embarrassment in throwing yourself out there and not even getting a semblance of interest in return.

At first you're kind of scared, because you're very naked and he walks in clothed and has a couple towels under his arm, but you don't turn around to avoid premature eye contact.

Once he gets in, you'll have to admit it's a little difficult because it's slippery and you're nervous and he has most definitely done this before. He's quite accommodating once you tell him you've never done this sort of thing with a man, and soon enough, he has you weak-kneed and cumming in his hand. He litters you in reassuring kisses and the sly bastard leaves hickeys on your frigging neck and chest.

He takes you to bed, only now you're comfortably naked together and not so afraid of accidentally touching him too low. The night goes much better than planned and you sleep very nicely in each other's arms.

==> Your name is Dirk Strider, it is Too Early AM and your boyfriend is amazingly peaceful in his sleep. Which you have seen before, but even after nearly a dozen times you still adore him for it.

He's a very active person, you dare say extroverted, and seems to always be up to something. Seeing him so unbothered and calm puts you at ease.

You're suddenly aware you're not wearing anything, and while that's not much of a problem, you're kind of cold and fully aware you won't be going back to sleep.

You roll out of bed carefully and grab a hoodie and boxers to go make coffee, groggily rubbing your eyes. Once it's done you go back to your room with a cup and spend a while on your laptop.

Jake wakes up briefly and mumbles something like "what time is it", puts his head on your thigh, and falls back asleep.

The sun begins to show through your curtained windows so you have to put your shades on and now you're feeling sort of lethargic. You look down at Jake and pet his hair, which makes him put an arm over your waist and you think he might be awake again but he doesn't move after that.

Jake finally opens his eyes and wakes up around 10AM, while you're watching reaction videos on YouTube. He rolls over and blinks at the screen, then up at you, then the screen.

"Morning." He smacks his lips at you in response.

"Good morning darling, do you see my glasses, I'm positively blind without them."

You raise an eyebrow at the pet name, "I think you left them in the bathroom."

"Could you get them for me, I'm afraid I'm very nude."

"I don't mind." That earns you a flick in a the knee and you laugh before getting up to retrieve his glasses for him.

Jake puts them on while you sit back down and set your laptop aside, rolling your sleeves up. He sets his fingers down on your arm and stares at it.

"What's this from?" He's inspecting your scars, which you would say you're covered in. Dave definitely has more, though.

"Sword fight, I think. They're all from swords or typical accidents."

"They look like they were pretty bad."

"A lot were deep, yeah."

"What about the big one on your chest?" He's still looking at your arms, freckled and lined with white stripes of scars.

"I fell on a sword. Actually, I did that a few times, but that time almost killed me."

The look on his face is pretty much just what you would've expected, "You fell on a sword?" He mutters one of those British-y curses under his breath.

"Ch'yeah. It's a little too easy to happen. That's what happened here, except it more like grazed me than stabbed me." You point at the one on your face and he raises his eyebrows.

"Doesn't that scare you?"

"What do you mean."

"I mean, I think that would stop me from wanting to be around a sword if that happened to me."

"It doesn't happen much anymore. They were mistakes. I'm kind of scared when a sword is inside my body, but otherwise, nah."

Jake looks down at your leg and rests his head back on your lap, grazing his fingers over more thin scars. You have a decent amount less on your legs, and many of which are actually just from things like eating concrete on a skateboard.

He asks about one under your knee and you tell him about said eating concrete which makes him cringe. You guess he doesn't like the phrase.

Then he asks if you still skateboard or if you did it a lot, and you tell him that, no, you don't and you didn't very often because you were much more concerned with making hoverboards and that gets a hearty laugh out of Jake. You refrain from telling him you really did make one because you've seen enough reactions to know he would want you to prove it and then ask to try it, which likely ends up in injury.

The thing could use some more work anyway, its power is weak and can only go so far.

Jake tells you that the worst injury he got, aside from the oh-so-common broken bones, was the time he did get shot. He claims that guns are easier to prevent injury with because they have a safety setting and he would never aim one at a person, safety on or not, but young Jade was not as well-equipped in common sense.

"Luckily it wasn't near anything too vital and could just be pulled out, so I just got a big ol' hole in my side and a nasty scar. I mean, it's plenty faded now, but it looked rather unappealing for a long while."

"I thought that was a birthmark." You reach under the sheet and run your fingers under Jake's ribs and he squirms and slaps your hand. You smirk.

"Can I ask about that one?" Jake looks up at you and has his hand on his own neck, as if asking about the scar running across your throat.

"Davis underestimated a sword's length and tried to make me jump by pretending to.. Slash at me and ended up fucking slicing my throat. That could've killed me too." You rub your neck, trying to feel it.

"Wow." He says.

"He never liked sword fighting much." That time scared you more than the sword over an inch in your chest did.

"No offense Strider, but... I don't think any kids should be fighting with swords. Or... Have any.. For that matter."

You sigh because you have heard that from just about everyone you know, "I know."

You don't tell him because it likely wouldn't be very convincing, but you're a lot better now, and it's no longer as much of a concern as it used to be. You hardly fight now, you and your brothers are separated and you wouldn't swing at someone you didn't know couldn't defend themselves, so you think you'll be alright.

Jake grabs your hand and kisses the back of it before simply holding it and lying there. You think he's resting again.

He moves so you can readjust and lie back down with him, but then his knee is just about in your crotch so you tell him that and he laughs giddily, apologizing. You remove your sunglasses and kiss him on the nose, and in turn, he pulls you against him, making you very aware of your heartbeat and breathing.

The state of comfort he puts you in makes you fall asleep for a little over an hour, an hour you could probably use. When you wake up, you're alone in your bed and you can hear Jake making noise in your kitchen.

You're also a bit thankful Jake's not there at the moment because now you have an unwanted situation of morning wood, so you go into your bathroom to take a good, cold, psuedo-shower.

Since your morning is virtually gone, you brush your teeth, spike your hair, and get some jeans and a tank top on. You go to the kitchen to see Jake eating cereal you didn't know you had and is wearing your basketball shorts.

He looks up at your face, your shoulder, and back at your face. He seems to forget you have a tattoo because he does that a lot.

"G'morning again."

"Isn't it afternoon?"

"Hodgepodge." He looks at the microwave clock, "Time is an illusion."

You laugh behind your hand, you can't believe that's his excuse.

"What?" He looks confused.

"Nothing, that's just funny."

Jake shoves a bunch of cereal in his mouth and you sit across from him, crossing a leg over a knee while you look through your phone. You have a nicely timed text from Roxy, giving you a briefing on the plan for the Fourth of July party.

It reads, "ok about the 4oJ party, u can pack for a couple days and stay for a while if u want, im inviting you to. every1 else is going, we could always use more booze but def bring some good fireworks. preferably come on the 3rd :) oh also tell me if ur neighbors r coming"

You text her back, "Alright, cool. The neighbors are coming, or at least Jake. Tell me if shit changes."

Speaking of which, you look at Jake to ask, "Is Jade coming? I mean, to New York?"

"Oh, yeah, she's really excited!" Jake gets out of his seat to rinse his bowl and leans back over the table, "I hope you don't mind I leave soon, I have to take Bec to get groomed. His hair is getting too long for the weather, poor boy."

You shake your head, "Mm, no, go ahead. I may have to go to work today anyway."

He raises an eyebrow, "Go? Go to work? I thought you worked at home?"

"I do but I work for a corporation and sometimes I have to do the boring shit too."

"Oh. Wow. Alright then." Jake goes and walks into your room, assumably to get dressed or something, when you get a text back from Roxy.

"sure thing. glad jake is COMIGN w you ;)"

"that was an innuendo"

If she said that to you in person, you'd be shaking your head. You reply, "Yeah, I got that."

She replies as timely as ever, "bc hes totlly ur bf"

"I never said that." She's going off assumptions. While she's not wrong, you don't really appreciate her prodding and teasing most of the time.

"but he is" You don't reply this time, especially since you can't really say he's not. She tries to talk about relationships a little too much for your liking.

You put your phone down and sigh, slumping against the back of the chair. Then Jake is behind you and he's playing with your bangs, threading his fingers through your hair and pushing it back. You lean your head back to look at him and he leans down to kiss you, and you conclude that The Amazing Spider-Man makes upside down makeouts way grosser than they have to be.

"I'll see you later, Strider. I had a great time." He has a look on his face and you think you know why.

"Me too." He kisses you briefly again before leaving, and once you hear the door close, you get up out of the chair and go to your room to check your email.

As you pretty much expected, you're being called into the work office at 5PM. Fucking great, boring old suit people. You think that even if you weren't nineteen, you would still think of them as boring old suit people.

You waste time until you have to get ready and put on slacks and all your other office-appropriate crap. You look in the mirror to judge yourself and decide that, yes, you look professionally boring, before getting in your car and heading to aforementioned office.

\--

Days and weeks pass you by, your time is consumed with seeing Jake and hanging out with him and Jade and their dog. It's a weird, sudden, change, and you're actively social as opposed to a couple months ago when you were all, work work work, sleep, run, work. That was everyday for you.

You think you appreciate this change though, because while you like your quiet and all, Jake's really great to have around, plus he gives you your space when you need it.

Also, next week you're going to see your sisters and take Jade and Jake with you. You think you'll probably surprise them or something by taking a jet; you fucking hate airports. Plus they'll have to take their dog and they won't have to lock him up on a jet.

Not that it really matters, but you kind of don't care for Fourth of July at all, it stands for something you guess you would say you're against, but a good time is a good time, and Roxy takes advantage of that just as much as you do.

But you digress, because you're currently looking for new sword sheathes so you can bring what you bought for your brothers over and not piss off the potential attendees on the potential jet. That and some gifts for the Lalonde's because you feel obligated to and you procrastinate pretty hard on that. They're kind of hard to shop for.

You typically think, oh, Rose likes dark gothic shit and books, how's this random ass dark lore book, and then she says something like "I already have it" or "I appreciate the gesture, but this is made-up profit material".

Roxy's similar but different in her own way: she likes cats and looking pretty so you go for something along those lines and... Well that just isn't in your field at all.

A few times you went the easy route and bought them new laptops or computers or whatever but now they do that themselves so you're almost at a dead end. Unless you buy them new pets... No, your step-mom would be so pissed off.

Considering you've known Rose and Roxy their whole lives (and them, yours), you know they're not all cats, looking pretty, and books. You're just really shitty at this. And throwing money at them would be pointless because you're pretty sure they have more than your side of the family does.

Just out of convenience though, there's this section of the weapons shop for handheld protection and self-defense and there's these cat-shaped brass knuckle type things you've seen on the internet, so you buy a couple. 

You spend some time at a mall in northern Washington and end up finding a tee shirt from this emo band, one that Roxy took you to see live, plus some generic skull jewelry so you just add that to the bill and leave. You probably stuck out too, being a tall guy in sharp shades in a store virtually full of girls.

Before you leave the mall and go home, you buy a drink and waste some time in a store full of new consoles and games, when you recognize a familiar back of a head.

"Jane." You say, and she turns around, her face immediately splits into a smile.

"Dirk! Ah, come here!" She walks toward you and you meet her halfway to lift her up a few inches in a hug. Jane pats your arm hastily, "Oh, put me down you goofball."

You do so and she readjusts by pulling her shirt down and fixing her hair, which does virtually nothing because her hair is too curly to obey her. "What're you doing here?"

"Hoo boy, I'm hunting down a GameCube for John- he says he never played with one! So, naturally, I thought I'd bring one on the trip."

"Well aren't you generous."

"P-shaw. How about you, Strider, this is kind of far out for a simple mall trip?"

"It's the only one in-state with a weapons shop." You lift up the bag with the sword sheathes hanging out of it.

"Oh, right, of course." She gives you a look like you're ludicrous. "Shopping for your family, are we?"

"You caught me, I'm a lazy fuck who waits last minute." A woman with a child glances over her shoulder at you.

"Who's it all for?*

"Mostly the Lalonde's. You know how it goes, I dread this shit. My original thought was sniper gear for Roxy but she's... Particular."

"You mean, likes pink?"

You snort, "Particular."

"Get them paintball guns! It's way more fun and they can do more with it."

You scratch your neck, reminded of the numerous incidents with paintball guns when you were around the age of thirteen, "She gave me a welt on my face last time we played, Crockpot."

"She can handle it now, _Distri_. Anyway, if you're still looking, I could probably help. A feminine eye could be of use." She readjusts her glasses at you.

"Hah. Yeah, sure." Jane pats you on your arm and smiles all big and wide before linking your arms.

You two get to walking and talking and she tells you about the latest hilarious incident, which was her dad nearly blowing up a bag of flour in their kitchen. "The room was powdered starch white, my god it was hilarious, Dirk," she tells you. Jane also helps finding gifts that are a little more practical and she seems much more sure of what they'd like then you are, so you're pretty grateful you ran into her.

Once you both decide you are pretty done shopping, you pick up some food in the mall and sit down on the patio outside the food court.

"By the way, I'm taking a couple people and, uh, their dog, to New York, and I think Jade may be bored part of the flight. If you want, I'll pick you up and you can fly with us, airports are kind of shit anyway."

"Oh my, you're going privately again, are you? If it's no trouble, I'd greatly prefer that."

"Naw, it'd be better with four than three."

"Plus a dog!" She says, joking.

"Plus a dog." You agree, before opening up your tray and start to eat.

"Who're you taking, anyway?"

You point your fork at her and wave it around vaguely, "My neighbors. We're pretty good friends now."

"Oooh, neighbor boy? The one I had previously heard about? And his sister, right?"

You grunt. "Yeah."

"Oh goody, I get to meet them!" She takes a sip of her drink. "Is there any development I get to hear about on that?"

"What do you mean." You know what she means.

"Well Roxy was saying something about some possible affections? Hmm?"

"Mhmm."

"Oh you're so avoidant."

You stuff rice in your mouth and continue being transparent as hell.

She eats just as you do, saving you admitting what you hate admitting to for a fair minute.

Jane looks at you again, "Really though, I'm curious."

"Doesn't Roxy tell you everything that ever happens, ever."

"I dunno about THAT."

"Mmm... That almost surprises me." You look at the tray, at Jane, then back down, "Well uh, yeah. Yeah.." You get a little quiet towards the end, feeling your awful inner embarrassment get to you.

"Yeah? Yeah what?"

"I mean, yeah. Shit." Stop being anxious man, you tell yourself, "Roxy's a shithead who, I dunno, fuck, predicted the future or whatever." That's about as far as you can push yourself to admit that Hey, I'm dating someone.

"Predicted-" she makes a face that says Oh! I get it! "Oh, go Dirk! Getting some!"

You nearly choke on your food and you feel your face heat up all over again. You swear this only happens with her and Roxy, only them.

"What's his name again, do you have pictures together, I wanna seeee!" She puts her hands on the table, leaning toward you.

"It's Jake. He has more but I- Psh, I guess."

You take your phone out to show her the two pictures you two took together, one's from your first date and he's got his arm around you and kissing your cheek. The other is from comparing bedhead, which he thought was downright hilarious, and you tell her that.

Jane aww's at both, "You two look so good together, he looks like a sweetheart. And much different from that photo I got of his double chin."

Oh yeah, that happened. "Hahah... Uh, yeah, thanks."

"I can't wait to meet him. Do him and his sister look alike?"

"They don't think so, but they definitely do. Same hair, same eyes, same teeth, similar build. They even wear glasses."

"That sounds like a lot in common, and they don't see it?"

"Nah. But hey, y'know, when you're around someone so much you tend to see the differences rather than similarities."

"I suppose that does make sense. But just so you're aware, you and Hal are nearly inseparable."

"Okay, okay, ha ha, we are identical twins, I know."

She giggles at you and you eat some more, watching the cars down below as you do so. When you both must be starting to feel lethargic, Jane starts talking again.

"I'm bringing a friend from school, by the way."

"Oh yeah?"

"She's really nice, like, super super sweet. Sweet as sugar, if I dare! She came from England and apparently her dad is a Lord. I think that means he's important?"

"It sounds important. Are you good friends?" You ask.

"Kind of, we get along, but she doesn't know many people right now and I thought she would like to come with us. Oh- shucks, we're supposed to catch a flight together too. Scratch that about the private fli-"

You interrupt, "Oh, no, it's okay, invite her too. I was kind of relieved you agreed to come earlier because Jade was about to... Be a third wheel." 

"Hoohoo! Are you sure, though? That seems a bit much."

"Really, tell her she can join us. I can get her a refund if she already bought her ticket."

"Dirk, you are too kind. Thank you, I will."

You nod, taking another sip of your drink.

A few minutes go by of small talk before you both get up and start to walk back down to the parking lots. Jane kisses your face several times in goodbye, you hug, then go your separate ways.

You throw your bags of gifts into the back seat and spend your thirty minutes driving in relative relaxed silence, generally reflecting on your day and making plans in your head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to write their 4th of July and then have it out by the Fourth but then I got drunk oops ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


End file.
